iWant to Wake Up
by OneHorseShay
Summary: Parallel story to iDon't Want to Wake Up. As an unexpected thunderstorm wakes up Carly into a very different world than she knows, the other Carly wakes up in her Canon World. Creddie, AU Carly, Post-iBalls.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Hello my dear readers. I know that I have on more chapter for iDon't Want to Wake Up and I want to thank you for the support with that story, but since this story is parallel to that story, I can go ahead and post the first chapter for it. I will try to update the last chapter for iDWtWU later today. For this story, I'm going to try for weekly updates on Fridays.

Happy Reading.

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iWant to Wake Up

By OneHorseShay

Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sakes, don't sue.

Rating: T Language, Possible Adult Themes and Violence

Pairings: Established AU Creddie and future Canon Creddie. Mentions of AU Sam/Brad.

Summary: Parallel story to iDon't Want to Wake Up. As an unexpected thunderstorm wakes up Carly into a very different world than she knows, the other Carly wakes up in hers.

Chapter 1

Shay Apartment  
Saturday, August 20, 2011

Carly Taylor Shay grinned as she stared up at her bedroom ceiling after unexpectedly waking up about fifteen minutes ago. Sure, her bedside clock displayed with red digits that it was just approaching seven A.M. on a Saturday morning and she hadn't gotten much sleep after getting in late last night from her week long stay with her granddad, but she didn't mind one bit as she rested in her bed; her Freddie would be coming back in the next few hours after spending the last six weeks at his NERD Camp. The acronym still brought a hint of a smile to her face of its cukieness.

She had missed him the entire time, but knew that it had been worth it as it would guarantee that they would be admitted together to any college she was accepted and of course the fact that it had become one of his dreams to attend. She had to remind herself that nearly constantly (with the help of her mother) since they were missing spending about half their summer break together, especially their first summer together as a couple.

The brunette turned her head to her left to see the slowly passing dark clouds outside her window. She smiled even though she still couldn't see the sun, but she did see that the storm had passed from earlier in the night and that Freddie wouldn't have to travel in the downpour.

She watched the clouds roll by for a few more minutes then figured that she had tossed and turned long enough, so she thought she might as well get up to get her day started. She threw off her covers and planted her bare feet on the carpet to the right side of the bed then pushed off to head down the few steps down to the floor of her bedroom. She immediately set off to head for her bathroom. She passed by the door to her parents room. She didn't see a light on, but gave it no thought as she figured that her mother was still sleeping. If the storm had not subsided, she knew that her mother would have been up.

The brunette entered her bathroom and shut the door behind her to go about her business of using the bathroom and taking a shower.

Unlike when she took long showers when she was upset, this one was fairly quick and in no time she was out with her robe around her and towel in her hands. She walked to her sink and faced her mirror. She vigorously dried her hair with the towel for several seconds then threw it over her shoulder. She went about her normal routine as she did every morning of filling up her small purple cup resting on the sink with cold water then pulled out her vitamins from her medicine cabinet. After several quick pops of several fruity vitamins and sips of water between them, she turned back to her medicine cabinet to look for her other pills. She slightly frowned as she searched through the cabinet as she couldn't find them immediately.

"Now where did you go? I know I put you back when I got back," she mumbled to herself as her search was turning up fruitless. She snorted out with a bit of irritation as she did not want to have to waste anytime to go to the pharmacy today. She blew out a breath and gave up on her search. She'd just worry about getting some more on Monday as she closed the cabinet then headed out to go to her room.

The brunette quickly cut through her room to head for her closet to grab some clothes. However, just as she was reaching the glass covered door with the blue print of CS, she noticed a picture of Freddie she didn't recognize in her pink frame sitting on her banister. She picked up the picture and slightly frowned. She thought it was a cute and playful picture of Freddie holding his chin and looking at the camera, but she didn't have a clue where it could have come from and wondered what happened to her other picture of her and Freddie together since this was the frame that picture had been placed. She brushed that thought aside as she would just ask her mother about it later. She sat the frame back on the banister then turned to pick out her outfit for the day.

Once she picked out her clothes and dressed in a navy blue T-shirt with a silver US Air Force wings over the left breast of the shirt (more importantly over her heart) with a bigger symbol on the back and some light colored blue jeans, she had a seat at her desk and in front of the large monitor. She turned it on so she could brush and style her hair a bit. As she was fixing her hair to fall over her shoulders, she noticed that several pictures on her stick board to her left were missing, specifically several pictures over the years with Jade and one of her mother and father standing together.

The web-hostess obviously wondered what could have happened to them, especially as she could have sworn that they were there last night. She seriously doubted that her mother, Spencer or Sam would just take them down while she was gone. She shrugged her shoulders as she filed that way to ask them about it later then turned back to finish styling her hair.

About twenty minutes later, she came down the stairs and headed straight for the kitchen to get a morning cup of coffee before grabbing something to eat. She usually wouldn't put her coffee before her breakfast, she wasn't as bad as Jade when it came the need for her morning coffee, but she needed the caffeine to help her get through at least the morning.

She reached up to the cabinet and opened it. She pushed aside the container filled with coffee, but the brunette frowned after several seconds of digging through the cabinets to no avail. Spencer kept insisting on buying the decaffeinated coffee, but she knew her mother always hid away some of the good stuff. Her irritation grew as her mother's hiding spot was empty. She snorted out annoyed that apparently they had ran out of the good stuff and her mom hadn't gotten the chance to get some more.

After failing yet again to find something she was looking for, she settled in grabbing the decaf and closed the cabinet. She turned to the coffeemaker and opened the top to start preparing to brew the coffee. Once she went through the mechanics to get the coffee started, she waited patiently for a few minutes as the coffeemaker went about prepared the pot of coffee.

Just as the coffee pot was filled and she started pouring herself a cup into her favorite mug, Spencer yawned as he stretched his arms out and above his head and walked out of his room. He blew out a breath and scratched his stomach with his right hand as he cut through the living room on his way to the kitchen. As he crossed the threshold between the living room and kitchen in front of the freight elevator, he greeted his baby sister, "Morning kiddo, what are you doing up so early?"

The brunette shrugged a shoulder and answered with a playful smile, "Morning, I couldn't sleep. I guess I'm too anxious for Freddie to get back." She took a quick sip of her coffee as watched over the rim of her mug Spencer put a perplexed expression on his face.

"Waiting for Freddie to get back? Back from where?"

Carly blinked as pulled the rim of the cup away from her lips. "What do you mean from where? His camp he's been gone to for the last six weeks? Did you forget he's supposed to come back today?"

He asked with a higher than normal pitched voice, "Camp? Freddie didn't go to his NERD camp; Sam sabotaged his application… remember?"

Carly's mouth instantly closed shut as she held her coffee mug in her hands. She looked at her taller brother and watched as his face remained an expression of confusion as if what she had said was nonsense.

"WHAT?"

Spencer leaned back from her outburst.

Carly asked with a bit of disbelief, "Why on Earth would Sam do such a thing?"

The artist put on a crooked smile as he cautiously answered, "He didn't know what time it was?"

Carly's mouth dropped open for a moment in complete and utter shock at such an answer, but then a few moments later she closed her mouth and a grin formed on her pale face. She shook her head and let out a soft laugh then spoke with a bit of playfulness in her voice, "Very funny Spencer. Did mom say you could pull a prank on me?"

"Mom?"

Carly kept a half smile on her face as she answered, "Yeah, mom. Is mom up? I didn't see a light on from under her door."

Spencer blinked and his mouth hung open for a moment before he could finally form a word, "What?"

Carly wore a somewhat concerned expression on her face at seeing his unexpected facial expression. She asked slowly, "Mom? Is mom up?"

Spencer's brow furled as he answered with sharp tone, "That's not funny Carly."

The brunette slightly frowned as she gave Spencer a surprised expression from his nearly angry outburst. "What do you mean?"

"What do I mean? You're asking me where mom is," he answered with a curt tone.

The brunette nodded her head and asked slowly, "Yes, because I haven't seen her this morning."

The lanky artist put on a deep frown as she looked back at her. "I mean it Carly, this is not funny."

Carly sat her mug on the countertop of the island then looked to the artist with a concerned expression. "What are you talking about? I'm just asking you where mom's at? Did she make an early run to the I Heart Art or decided to go to school to start setting her classroom back up? Even on a Saturday." She broke eye contact with her brother and slightly rolled her eyes as she spoke mostly to herself, "I thought she'd at least wait 'til Wednesday, but—"

"Stop it right now!" the taller Shay snapped, but the worried and frightened expression on his face was quite jarring to the web-hostess.

Carly raised her hands and spoke with a calm voice, "Okay Spencer, what's going on?"

"What's going on? You're asking me where mom's at."

Carly put on a perplexed expression as she was becoming "What's the problem?" The web-hostess was becoming more bewildered and concerned with her brother's reaction as he started blinking and looking at her as if he was frightened of something… maybe her.

The artist opened his mouth and closed it several times as he tried to form words then whispered, "Mom… mom's dead."

Carly's face instantly fell and a chill went up her spine. "Now that's not funny Spencer," she answered with a cooled and offended tone.

"What you're doing isn't funny," he replied with a strange mixture of hurt and concern.

"Funny? You're the one saying that she's dead. That's not a funny prank to try to pull."

"It's not a prank, because she is dead and I don't appreciate you trying to joke around that she's alive. Is this some kind of delayed payback for all those pranks I pulled on you last year?"

"What pranks? Mom hasn't let you pull a prank since you were fourteen other than you turning my hair red velvet after me and Gibby used you as a guinea pig for our science experiment during the last lock-in at school."

Spencer raised his hands up and spoke in a rare tone that showed that he had ran out of patience with her, "Okay Carly this isn't funny. You need to stop right now,"

Carly's brow furled and took a step forward to meet her brother's gaze. "I'm not trying to be funny. How is she dead? I just saw her before I went to bed! What? Not six hours ago!"

Spencer blew out a breath. "She died ten years ago when you were seven from the leukemia, that's how she's dead."

Carly took a step back as his tone hit her heart and realized that something was seriously wrong. "What?"

"Mom died."

The brunette shook her head as she kept her eyes on her older brother.

"Mom? Mom!" she shouted out as she took her eyes off of her bother and looked around the first floor of the apartment. When she didn't hear a response, she ran past Spencer and headed for the stairs. Carly ran up the stairs as quickly as her feet would take her up and ignored Spencer's desperate shouting.

She finally stopped in front of her parents' room and threw open the door. The room was completely dark and she instinctively reached for the light switch by the door. The light instantly came on to illuminate the room.

Her face fell as she cautiously entered the room. She slowly walked around the perimeter of the room to examine the almost foreign environment. Nothing was unrecognizable as she saw the various knickknacks resting on the nightstand and belongings of her father set about the room, but as her eyes roamed over the walls and cabinets, her mother's presence in the room, the almost childlike quality of her expressionism was almost completely absent from the room. None of her paintings or sculptures was displayed about the room. She passed around the end of the bed then stopped at the other nightstand where she saw a picture of her mother and father together.

She picked up the picture and her hand instantly felt dirty as there was a thin layer of dust covering the frame and the glass over the picture. The dust was troubling enough, but it was the picture that bothered her: it wasn't a recent picture of them, but one that was years old… probably ten years olds or more if Spencer was correct.

As troubling as all she had seen, what was the most striking thing about examining the room was that no one seemed to live in this room. She swallowed hard as she felt what little contents that were left in her stomach from her last meal threaten to rise up.

Spencer had caught up with her, but remained at the threshold of the entrance to the bedroom

Carly gently sat the picture down in place then started pacing about the bedroom and wrapping her arms around herself. She blew out a breath and took a seat at the end of the bed. "Okay, I need to wake up. I'm just having a nightmare." She pinched herself and winced for a moment from the pain, but that was all she got for her troubles as she was still sitting on the foot of the bed with Spencer staring at her.

Spencer spoke with a tender and hopefully comforting voice, "Carly, I don't know what's going on, but you're awake and this is the real world."

The brunette snapped her head up and looked at the person that might be her bother. Her voice filled with her irritation and bit of fear as she retorted, "Real world? Mom's dead and looks like no one is bothering to take care of the room while he's gone while he's on his joint duty assignment. How in the world is this 'the real world'?"

Spencer opened his mouth, but no words would come out.

She snorted out a breath then put on an impassive expression as she stood up from the end of the bed. She spoke with a determined tone that broker no tolerance for being debated, "I want to see her grave."

The older Shay blinked at her statement. "You want to _what_?"

Carly narrowed her eyes as she stared at the image of her older brother and whispered in a challenging tone, "If our mother is dead, _I want to see her grave_."

Spencer swallowed down nervously and eyes widened open from the look she was giving him. The artist's mind flashed back to the times his mother had put her foot down with him when he was a teenager and knew he wasn't going to win any argument with his sister from the look she was giving him.

The artist finally whispered out, "Okay."


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: Hello my dear readers. Thank you for your support with this story. I'm glad you've enjoyed the opening chapter. I have two chapters for this update. I'm happy to hear from you with what you think as I continue. On with the story.

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Chapter 2

Carly left her nearly dumbfounded brother behind in their parent's room as she quickly dash to her room to grab a jacket and what she assumed was her PearPhone. Once she reached her closet, she felt like it took her forever, but only a minute or so to find her zipped black hooded Air Force sweatshirt. She pushed her annoyance aside that it looked like all her other clothes were in the closet, but most of her Air Force clothing was missing and realized it was pure luck that she found the T-shirt she was wearing a few minutes ago in the first place. She pulled the sweatshirt over her shoulder then walked to her bed to grab her charging PearPhone off the nightstand then shoved it into her oversized left pocket. She took another moment to dig in her drawer and grab her wallet then shoved it into her right pocket.

She was out the door of her bedroom a moment later and down back downstairs in less than a minute, but she had to wait for Spencer to dress before they could head out. The brunette took a quick breath to help calm her nerves then started pacing about the living room. She pushed the idea of seeing her mother's grave to the back of her mind and focused on examining the first floor of the apartment to see if anything was different or more accurately due to her mindset that she was just in a nightmare, warped from her viewpoint. Nothing really looked that out of the ordinary except a few missing pieces of her mother's art that should have been mixed in with Spencer's art, which was oddly absent as well except for the green bottle-bot and a few older pieces. She blew out a soft breath from her noise as she was glad to see her mother's phone collection about the apartment.

As she paced, she naturally stuck her hands into her sweatshirt pockets and palmed over her PearPhone. Since she figured that this nightmare world was already playing tricks on her, she might as well see if her phone was just as messed up as what she had seen with the world. She frowned down at her pear shaped cellular phone as she started skimming through her contacts and realized that several significant ones were missing: her cousins Faye and Ozzy, Brad, Megan, her mother, Sinjin, Cat, Tori, Jade and the list kept going of missing names and numbers. She mumbled to herself, "This keeps getting weirder and weirder. I have to wake up soon."

A knock on the apartment door grabbed her attention away from the phone as she snapped her head to look at the door. She shoved her phone back into her pocket then headed to the door. She took a quick peak through the peephole then immediately went about undoing the locks and opening the door.

She blinked with restrained joy as she saw her technical-producer and more, Fredward "Freddie" Benson standing on the other side of the threshold. She cautiously whispered with a bit of disbelief, "Freddie?"

"Hey," he greeted her with a warm, but hesitant smile as he had his hands shoved into his jean pockets. "I know it's really early on a Saturday, but I needed to come over to tell you that I'm sorry that I—"

He didn't get to finish as Carly threw her arms around him and pulled him tight for a hug. She didn't care if he was just a dream after being six weeks apart from him she'd settle for a dream to get her through the next few hours it would take him to get back to her.

Freddie blinked in surprised then wrapped his arms around her to return her hug. He didn't get to enjoy the hug for long because she pulled just far enough away from him so that her hands slipped from behind his neck to cup his cheeks and pull him into a lip locking kiss. She grinned into the kiss and parted her lips slightly as she realized that even for a dream, he felt warm and real to the touch and that he was actually returning the kiss.

She pulled back a few seconds later with one last run of her tongue over his bottom then smiled at the blinking and wide eyed teenager.

He took a few seconds to gather his wits to realize what just occurred and that he had fell right back into the stride of kissing her even after a year and half since their last kiss. "Wh-what was that for?"

She snorted out a laugh and smiled brightly at him. "I haven't seen you in six weeks; I think I'm due a kiss from my boyfriend."

The tech-producer's mouth dropped open and he blinked at the pale brunette. His mouth opened and closed several times before his throat could utter a sound then form a question, "Your what? I'm your what?"

She sighed for a second as she dropped her hands away from his cheeks then pulled out of his embrace. She looked up the ceiling for some reason and called out, "Oh come on? That can't be different too."

Freddie started blinking as he looked to the web-hostess. He asked with evident disbelief in his voice, "Can't be different?"

She turned her attention back to Freddie and gave him a sympathetic smile. "I'm sorry, but you're a figment of my imagination since… well this is a dream I'm having. See, in the real world, you're my boyfriend, but apparently a piece of my subconscious doesn't like that. Stupid subconscious," she hissed at herself as she finished. She looked away from him, but just casually around the living room as she commented to herself, "Oh my God, could I still be with Steven in my dream?"

Freddie raised an eyebrow as he looked at her with a worried expression, "Okay Carly, seriously what's going on?"

Carly let out a breath and tried to calmly explain it to him, "I am having a nightmare that I know I'm going to wake up from any minute. Spencer is about to take me to our mother's gravesite."

"Why?" he cautiously asked then eyed Spencer just coming out of his room for some clarification, but the artist just gave him a look indicating that he was not going to argue with his sister.

Carly lifted a hand and rested it on the side of Freddie's right arm. She confidently smiled as she answered, "He said out mother is dead and I want him to prove it. I'm hoping it's like when you are falling in a dream and you wake up before you hit the ground; before I see her grave, I'm going to wake up then I'll be back home."

Freddie looked past Carly's shoulder to look to Spencer to see if he was in on the joke, but the look on Carly's older brother told him that there was no joke to be let in on. The brown eyed teenager took a slow breath then whispered, "Carly, I don't know what's happened, but this is not a dream."

She tilted her head slightly to the side and gave him a disbelieving smirk. She asked with a bit of Dorfman sass in her voice, "Really? Spencer said you didn't go to NERD camp because Sam sabotaged your application because you didn't know what time it was; even if I didn't know any better, it's so stupid it has to be a dream."

Freddie cleared his throat and his brow furled for a moment then answered, "Ah, that really happened. Sam changed my answers on my application and they rejected me for it."

The brunette straightened her head and crossed her arms under her chest as she put on an obvious disbelief expression on her face. She retorted with a near sarcastic tone, "Sam would not do that. You've been looking forward to going for months. It's like a dream for you then you could go to any college you wanted. She knows that."

Freddie frowned and gave her a disappointed look. She slightly frowned in return with the look he was giving her. He whispered with a sad tone, "No, she really did. I missed out going and I've been here for the last six weeks." He slightly shook his head then finished, "Like you said 'Who cares?' that Sam did that because it doesn't matter anyway; I couldn't have gone since we're in school."

"Who cares?" Carly blinked as the words seemed foreign and strange in her mouth. She licked her lips then stated with ferocity, "I wouldn't say such a thing and what's this about us being in school? Freddie, we're out for the summer. School doesn't start back until September seventh."

Freddie closed his mouth for a second then hesitantly countered, "Ah, Carly? Ridgeway switched to a year round school; we're in school _now_."

Carly tilted her head down slightly, but maintained her eye contact with him as she asked in a tone that was questioning his sanity, "So, my mother is dead, you're not my boyfriend, Sam messed up your application, I told you that I didn't care that Sam messed up your chance to go to camp and we've been in school for the summer?"

When Freddie looked back at her with the expression that he was being serious about what he was saying, the brunette shook her head and complained loudly, "Oh, now I _know_ I have to wake up from this janked up nightmare." She looked over her shoulder to her older brother and spoke with an irritated tone that said she wasn't going to wait for him, "Come on Spencer; let's go."

Mount Pleasant Cemetery  
700 West Raye Street  
Seattle, WA  
Saturday, August 20, 2011

The quiet drive was relatively short to where Spencer said was their mother's resting place. Spencer quickly parked the SUV and the siblings got out of the vehicle under an overcast sky and surprisingly crisp August morning. Carly pulled her sweatshirt tightly around her body then zipped it up nearly to the top as she looked up at the sky and the wind blew her hair. Freddie stepped out from the back seat and was immediately by the web-hostess side. Carly didn't ask the tech-producer why he decided to tag along, but she didn't question it either as she was glad he was by her side even if he wasn't real.

The artist wore a concerned expression on his face, but remained silent as he turned away and started leading the teenagers out of the parking lot and down one of the concrete paths, but the brunette stopped at the threshold between the parking lot and the cemetery grounds.

"Carly?" Freddie whispered from her side.

She remained silent for a few second as she knew the sooner she got this done the sooner she would be waking up in her bed, but she had the sudden apprehensiveness in taking another step.

Spencer seemed to sense that they had stopped and turned to look over his shoulder to his sister.

Freddie took another step closer and stood so close in fact to her that her right arm pressed against his chest. He whispered, "You don't have to do this."

She took a few calming breaths then turned her head to meet Freddie's concerned eyes. Her mouth became a thin line as she raised her hand to palm his left cheek. She answered with a confident tone, "I have to wake up." She dropped her hand away from his face and turned her attention forward then took a step forward and caught up with her brother. She quickly commented, "Let's get this over with."

The taller Shay blew out a soft breath through his nose then started back down the path with his sister by his side and Freddie trailing behind them. After about a minute or so of walking down the path, Spencer stopped and motioned towards a group of graves. He was the first to take a step on the grass and headed down the way he was obviously familiar with traveling.

Carly blew out a breath then took a confident step onto the grass. The well maintained grass softly crumbled under her tennis shoes then sprung back upright once she lifted her foot to take the next step and carefully walking around the other graves.

Spencer stopped feet away from a headstone that was longer than the surrounding ones, but Carly continued walking cautiously a few more steps to get a better view of the headstone.

She swallowed as she stopped to the right of it and noticed that it was designed to mark two graves, but only had writing on one side of it for the moment. She cautiously knelt down on one knee and rested her right forearm on her raised right knee as she looked at the gravestone. She warily reached out with her right hand and let her fingertips run over the top of the headstone then down the front of the polished grey stone as she read the inscription:

_Taylor Faye Shay_

_Teacher, Friend, Sister, Daughter, Mother, Wife_

_The World is a Little Less Joyful without You_

_January 1963 – August 2001_

Carly drew back her hand from the text of her mother's name as if she had been burned and cover her mouth with the hand as she sucked in a sharp breath through her nose. She read the headstone epitaph several times then closed her eyes tightly as the first tears started running down from her tear ducts. She fell backwards and she landed on her behind. The only thing that stopped her from completely falling on her back was Freddie quickly knelling behind her and catching her. She started mumbling to herself, "This can't be real, this can't be real, this can't be…"

Freddie wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on her left shoulder. He started whispering softly anything he could think of to try to comfort her.

She pulled her hand away from her mouth and latched onto his forearms over her waist with both of her hands. The brunette started sobbing with the tears running freely down her flushing cheeks. Her breath caught several times in her throat as she tried to speak, but was finally able to choke out, "Wh-what kind of Hell did I wake up in Freddie?"

Freddie's face fell and eyes shot open wide as he had no idea how to answer her. He just held her tighter then whispered in her ear, "I don't know, I don't know…"


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: Second chapter of this update.

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Chapter 3

The crown of Carly's head was snuggled in the crook of Freddie's neck as he had his right arm wrapped around her as the pair sat in the back of the SUV and Spencer was driving them away from the cemetery. The brunette sat in silence as her tears dried on her cheeks and she had the front of his shirt balled up in her right fist. Her breath was slow and calm as she held on to him, but every time her breath would hitch, she could feel him hold her tighter for a moment, confirming that at least he was real in what was becoming a more disbelieving world she found herself trapped.

She saw from the corner of her eye that Spencer would occasionally glanced in the rearview mirror to look at her, but she really didn't give it much attention or thought. She didn't know how long she had sat there in Freddie's arms when the SUV pulled to a final stop or did she initially realize Spencer had brought the vehicle to a stop. She finally noticed when Freddie broke the silence with a whisper, "Come on Carly; let's get you something to eat."

The brunette nodded her head against his neck and upper chest, explicitly trusting his voice whether he was or wasn't her Freddie. She lifted her head off of his shoulder then pulled away from the brown eye boy so much like her own. She undid her seatbelt with one hand while opening up the passenger door. She slid out of the vehicle without comment as Freddie followed behind her instead of getting out on the other side of the vehicle. She glanced quickly around her surrounding and realized that they weren't back at Bushwell Plaza, but at a local fast food place. She didn't give it conscious thought, but instinctively figured that Spencer wanted to get her something to eat quickly and not wait until they got home and him fix her something.

Spencer took the lead with the trio quickly entering the fast food place, but Carly stepped into line ahead of the other two to order. The servers were quite quick in getting their orders out, as barely a minute passed with Carly already up to give her order. Carly with bloodshot eyes stared at the cashier and whispered with a challenging tone, "Coffee and give me the good stuff and not that watered down mess. _I want real milk_."

The blonde cashier nodded her head with a bit of fear then punched in the display in front of her Carly's order. The brunette didn't pay much attention to Freddie or Spencer ordering their breakfast as she pulled money out of her wallet. As soon as her coffee was placed on the counter, she grabbed it with one hand and placed her money down with her other hand. She turned without waiting for a receipt and headed for an empty table away from the other patrons with coffee in hand with her only stop being by the display to grab herself a few sugar packets.

Carly took a seat and placed the coffee on the table then pulled the white plastic lid off of the cup. She wrapped her hands around the disposable cup and brought the rim to her lips without bothering with the sugar for a moment. She took a comforting sip then rested the cup on the tabletop to stare down at the milky coffee.

Her mind started wandering as she held her gaze into the coffee. Her conscious thought started with the insolated cup she had wrapped in her hands. She could feel the warmth through the sides of the cup and the texture of the insolated slip around the cup in her palms, so she determined the cup had to be real. She could taste of the coffee on her tongue and in her mouth, so she determined that the coffee had to be real.

Her fingers had padded across the engraving on the headstone, her eyes had saw the words and her brain had processed the meaning of the words.

The grave was real.

Freddie's arms around waist as he had caught her were warm and tangible. She felt the soft warm breath on her eye when he whispered into her ear in a vain hope to comfort her. His arm around her again in the SUV had weight to it on her waist and hip. Her hand on his chest felt solid muscle and her ear against him heard his heartbeat.

Freddie was real.

Her mind came to only once conclusion: she wasn't dreaming.

As her mind was coming to that realization, she didn't notice at first that Freddie and Spencer took a seat on either side of her, but once she did, she gave a sparing glance between the people that looked like her brother and boyfriend then sighed out with a defeated tone, "I know, I know, I'm getting as bad as Jade with the coffee. I know mom shouldn't indulge me with the…" Carly caught herself with a tired breath then another sip of her coffee.

Spencer to a few seconds to tear his croissant sandwich in half then placed it on a napkin to slide in front of his sister. She spared him another brief glance then picked up the piece of breakfast meal and took a quick bite.

Carly took a few seconds to thoroughly chew then swallowed the bit of croissant. She eyed her two companions as she sat the rest down in front of her then commented, "I'm not crazy."

The artist took a deep breath then calmly started, "I didn't say you were; it's just…"

"I remember the last ten years with mom being here and you just took me to our mother's grave marked August two-thousand one. You're either playing a cruel joke on me or I've gone crazy. Those are the only two choices left if this isn't a dream. I don't believe you would ever pull such a prank on me… but I know I'm not crazy, so what's left?"

The older Shay with an apprehensive voice began again, "Maybe we should talk to someone—"

Carly looked down at her coffee and snorted out with a shake of her head, "A shrink you mean. The only doctor I would to talk to is Uncle Barry. Dad would kill you… _literally_ if you tried to commit me. You remember how dad reacted when granddad thought a few years ago that mom was too much like a child or goofy or just plan nuts and wasn't responsible enough to look after herself anymore while dad was deployed, least long me when your spinning hammer sculpture went haywire and that I should live with him." Carly took a quick sip of her coffee then whispered, "I thought dad was going to kill him right then and there when he showed up and granddad suggested mom needed '_care_'."

Spencer swallowed down nervously then kept silent. The look on the artist's face told her that she was correct in her assessment about whoever her father was in this nightmare world she was in for the moment even if the details weren't correct for Spencer.

Freddie took a slow breath through his nose then cautiously asked, "Okay, let's back up for a second. When was the last time you remembered being in… where everything was normal for you?"

Carly lifted her head to look at the brown eyed teenager then let out a tired breath. She answered with a desperate tone, "Just before going to bed last night." She shook her head then continued, "I had gotten back from granddad's a few hours before. I ate a late dinner with mom and Spencer while Sam and Brad were on their usual after iCarly broadcast date. After dinner I talked with you on the phone for a few minutes then went ahead to bed before Sam got back then I wake up to this place."

Spencer and Freddie exchanged some brief looks then Spencer spoke to the tech-producer as if Carly wasn't sitting with them, "Maybe she hit her head at granddad's and he didn't notice or maybe she fell while we were gone—"

"Spencer!" Carly nearly shouted and cut off his train of thought.

The artist snapped his head around to face her.

"I am not going to make up years of memories with one hit to the head. I didn't fall while at granddad's or after I got back. I haven't hit my head." She raised a hand and started palming over her head. "No bumps."

Spencer let out a tired breath then retorted with a bit of impatience in his voice, "Carly, something clearly happened. You thought mom was alive. You just told us a story about granddad that didn't happen and you broke down as if that was the first time you had ever seen her grave."

Carly slammed her hand down on the table and drew the looks of several other patrons. She ignored them as she hissed out, "She's not dead. She didn't die in August of o' one. She beat her leukemia. She was strong enough to be back to teaching the following school year."

Spencer gave her a sad expression with his eyes and sadly whispered, "I wish that was true Carly, but it's not."

Carly stared at her brother and as sympathetic as she could be for him, she didn't back down in her conviction that she was right.

Freddie spoke up, "Maybe it is true Spencer."

The Shay siblings turned their attention to the brown eyed teenager with Spencer quickly asking with a tone that suggested he couldn't believe Freddie was going to go along with what Carly had said, "Freddie?"

He was caught off guard for a moment by their stares and the artist's question, but quickly gathered his wits to explain, "Okay let's just go with the fact for the moment that Carly didn't hit her head or she's gone crazy—"

"I'm not crazy," she interrupted with a stern voice.

Freddie slightly frowned at her remark then continued, "That everything she remembers really did happen and let's go with the fact that she's not dreaming and that we are real and everything that we remember happened too."

Spencer spoke up, "Freddie, they both can't be true."

The tech-producer slightly nodded his head as he continued, "Yes they can… if we are looking at two separate universes: this one where your mother died and one where her mother didn't die. Schrödinger's cat?"

"What?" Spencer asked quickly and gave him a confused expression.

Carly tilted her head slight to the side and gave him a look of questioning about whether he was seriously purposing such a thing. "Are you saying I'm stuck in another universe?"

He shook his head then whispered out with a bit of exasperation, "Carly, I'm grasping at straws… I'm vaguely remembering what I've read off hand about quantum mechanics and what I've seen on some of my sci-fi shows about visiting worlds where World War Two ended differently or some other tiny thing was changed in the past for the future to be different. Even if I'm right, I don't have a clue how someone can really cross a barrier between two universes other than in science fiction."

She reached over and palmed her hand over the top of his hand. She smiled gratefully at him then whispered, "It's alright. I know you're trying. I'm sorry."

Freddie gave her a grateful smile and tried to ignore her soft touch on top of his hand.

Spencer closed his eyes for a second and raised his hands. He opened them and quickly spoke, "If that's true, and I'm not saying it is, then where is our Carly?"

Freddie started, stop then started again, "I guess wherever—" He motioned to the brunette to his left, "Carly is from."

Carly's mouth dropped open for a second then she asked with a soft hiss, "We switched?"

The tech-producer shrugged his shoulders. "Grasping at straws…"

Carly gave a nod to the boy she could see was still very much like her own from first impressions. She blew out a breath. "She's going to have a rude awakening when she sees mom… but why? Why am I here?

Freddie shook his head. "That's assuming someone did this to you and it isn't some freaky accident."

The brunette cocked her head to the side and narrowed her eyes on him to once again ask if he was really suggesting what he was suggesting. "I _accidentally_ dropped into an alternate universe? That makes sense to you?"

Freddie snapped back with a sharp tone, "Then space aliens or the wizard behind the curtain did it. I don't know Carly."

Carly looked down at the table and shook her head as she could hear Freddie catch his breath.

Spencer slightly frowned as he mumbled, "Unless you really did hit your head."

Carly and Freddie turned their attention to the artist. The web-hostess frowned at him to show that she was becoming irritated with his idea that she was crazy and the artist quickly looked away at his breakfast and started eating.

The brunette gave the brown eyed teenager and apologetic smile and soft squeeze of his hand still under her hand. She blew out a tired breath then spoke as she looked down at the table, "I don't know about space aliens… but when dad introduced us one time to Mister Teal'c it makes you wonder… either way I don't see the point of them doing it. I know magic is real because of Magic Malika, but I doubt she would do this to me… even if she wanted to, mom would dump her in a tub of Holy Water." Carly lifted her head up and looked to Freddie with a look of hope. "Wait, do you have a Magic Malika? She can teleport people, like she did Gibby and herself like she did after the Girl's Choice Dance. Maybe she can help?"

Freddie cracked a smile. "Yes we do… I guess it's worth a shot to talk to her?"

The pair then looked to Spencer who was still trying to process the situation through mid-chew of his breakfast.

Spencer rolled his eyes and with his mouth still full of food responded in defeat, "Fine, we'll go talk to her." He focused his attention to her then spoke with as much a firm voice he could manage, "but you finish your breakfast."

Carly cracked a smile and thought that was a reasonable request from the patient artist and the fact that she was starting to get really hungry. She took no time to start back on her half croissant sandwich.

* * *

Author's Note: Kind of shocking for poor AU Carly with at least Spencer still thinking she might be crazy. What about Magical Malika? See you next Friday for another update and one for Jade Likes Nice Guys.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note: Sorry for the lateness of this chapter. Real life got in the way. I hope to get the next chapter out tomorrow. Wow, if you've seen last week's iCarly then you know that there has been one big shift to Creddie with just a few lines of dialogue for the show. Thanks everyone for your readership and your reviews. I really appreciate them. On with the story.

* * *

Chapter 4

In route to Magic Malika's Residence  
Seattle, WA  
Saturday, August 20, 2011

Carly had retaken the passenger seat and fiddled with the top of a bottle of Crystal Waters' water that she had bought from the establishment with Freddie in the backseat an Spencer driving them to the address Freddie had found on his PearPhone for Malika. Spencer remained silent as they drove to the magician's residence while Carly watched the passing buildings while heading to the more residential parts of the city. She took some comfort in the fact that Seattle still looked like Seattle.

Freddie put away his PearPhone after reading up on quantum mechanics and alternate universe theories to try to wrap his head around their current circumstances. After digesting of what he briefly read, the most plausible thing that could possibly cross between parallel worlds (if they really existed) was information about a photon from an ion least long switching entire people. He blew out a breath to try to push that thought away then asked with a voice laced with concern, "Okay, our Carly is in your world, so ah… would she be alright?"

She spared a glance over at Spencer as she asked with a dry tone, "You mean would they try to stick her in a mental hospital?"

Spencer looked sheepish for a moment, but kept his eyes on the road.

Carly glanced over her shoulder to see Freddie's curious expression turned to one of deep concern and worry. She was familiar with that expression from her own Freddie, so it tugged on her own heart to see him that way. As she saw it, he was obviously quite concerned for his own Carly after accepting the fact that she wasn't his Carly. She gave him a reassuring smile as she spoke, "No, they wouldn't think she's crazy… okay, maybe a little bit at first, but they'd figure out pretty quickly that she wasn't me since she would obviously have some reaction at seeing mom. It's not like she could fool them for long and pretend she's me."

Freddie asked with a curious expression, "So they would just believe her?"

"You know mom… well you…" Carly blew out a breath and shifted in her seat better to look over the seat's shoulder straight at Freddie. "Mom's an artist. She sees the world differently and believes that there is more than what we can see…" She turned back in her seat and retreated into her mind as her eyes glanced away without focusing on anything particular and continued with an almost whimsical tone, "…There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy…"

Spencer's eyes remained on the road as he whispered sadly before he could stop himself, "Sounds exactly like mom."

She looked over to him briefly then reached over and gently rested her hand on his right forearm.

He glanced over to see his sister's counterpart giving him a sympathetic expression. He turned his eyes back to the road and put on a surprisingly stern expression.

She slightly frowned while her hand slipped off of his forearm. She blew out a soft breath then continued with Freddie without turning in her seat, "My Freddie is just as smart as you. He probably figured out the same thing you did."

Freddie slightly shook his head and spoke with a mournful expression, "I hope he's figuring out a way to switch you back, because I don't have a clue if Malika doesn't work."

Spencer shook his head as Carly saw he still looked unconvinced about the whole alternate universe/switching Carlys bit.

She gave him a patient smile and whispered out just as patiently, "I don't know what to say to convince you Spencer."

The artist in a surprisingly stern voice countered, "I still think we should have a doctor look at you—"

Carly had never been intimidated by her brother and she would not be intimidated by this version of her brother either, so she replied with an equally stern voice, "Then call Uncle Barry and have him come over. He's the only doctor I'm going to talk to."

Freddie asked with a curious tone, "Uncle Barry?"

"The Dorfmans," Spencer quickly supplied.

Freddie grabbed the shoulders of the front seats and pulled himself up to partially get between the seats. "Your cousins you hate?"

Carly immediately put on a perplexed expression, "Hate?"

Spencer looked sheepishly as he brought the vehicle to a stop in front of a stop light.

The brunette looked to Spencer with a frown and demanded, "Spencer, what does he mean '_cousins we hate_'?

The artist remained silent as he kept his focus on the light to avoid eye contact with the girl that was quite irritated with him.

Carly sucked in a sharp deep breath as she realized from his reaction that was the case for this Carly and Spencer.

Her voice was soft, but still had that demanding quality as she asked, "Is that why Ozzy and Faye's numbers aren't in her phone?"

Spencer swallowed nervously then whispered, "They're just kind of… goofy and weird—"

The teenager snapped with clear irritation in her voice, "We're Dorfmans, of course we're goofy! It's a family trait. They just got a little more of it than you and I. You wouldn't be as good an artist without it. You're the one that says it's something you can't learn in art school."

Spencer looked down at the steering wheel and put on a slight frowned as she knew her words were ringing in his ears and bouncing in his head.

Carly shook her head with a bit of disgust then rested her temple against her closed fist as she looked out the window and realized she would just be wasting her breath because he wouldn't engage in conversation about it.

As the vehicle started moving again, Carly spoke up, "It seems like things fell apart when your mom died."

"After _our_ mom died…" Spencer blew out a soft breath through his nose then finished guilt laden voice, "Things did fall apart."

Carly lifted her head and glanced with a sympathetic expression over to artist. "O-one? You were in college?"

Spencer took a deep breath as he thought back ten years ago that he had avoided thinking about for a long time. He spoke in a far more serious tone than Freddie had ever heard the eccentric artist speak, "About to start my junior year… three months short of my twentieth birthday… barely passed my exams to even make it out as a sophomore as mom was starting her chemo and the drugs. Got through my last two years… I kind of muddled through the rest to get out with a political science degree."

Carly turned away from the passenger window and looked to the artist with a confused expression. "Political Science? You have a political science degree?

Spencer shrugged a shoulder as he slowed the vehicle to make a right. "Yeah, it would get me into law school."

The brunette was become more confused by the moment and let it show on her face. "Law school? You didn't get your Art History degree?"

Freddie spoke up with curiosity in his voice, "Art History?"

"You know, like mom…" She slightly frowned for a second then continued, "…you wouldn't necessarily know. Mom is a born artist, so she didn't go to school to learn how to be an artist, but she wanted to learn what had come before, so history was the logical thing for her to do. Spencer wanted to be an artist too, but dad didn't see the point in paying for an outright art degree when he could learn how from mom or go apprentice with someone. So, Spencer took art history and now he's an artist."

Carly turned in her seat to looked back at Spencer, "Why a lawyer?"

The artist rolled his eyes in disgust as he answered, "_Granddad_ thought it was the responsible thing for me to do."

The brunette shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest. She asked with a tired voice, "What did dad have to say about it? About you being a lawyer?"

"He wasn't in the best shape back then right after mom died to really offer an opinion of me picking political science as a major. For the next five years until Granddad finally pushed me into going to law school, dad was just content that I raise you while I did odd jobs and him being deployed back and forth between Afghanistan and Iraq." He glanced over to her for a brief moment and commented a little irritated, "Wait, you already know this."

Carly rolled her eyes and looked at the SUV ceiling. "So are you really a lawyer?"

He blew out a breath trying to calm his nerves that she was ignoring his irritation. "No, I'm an artist. I dropped out of law school three days after I started. I couldn't stand it. It was just so _boring_."

Freddie spoke up letting his own curiosity get to him, "Why don't you just tell your dad you dropped out?"

Carly raised a corner of her mouth and looked to him with a bit of disbelief. "Dad doesn't know you're an artist?"

He sheepishly replied, "Nope. He thinks I'm a lawyer."

Carly reiterated, "_Why_?"

The older Shay sibling was hesitant for a moment in answering then finally admitted reluctantly, "I didn't want to disappoint him,"

"You really think dad would be disappointed that you're an artist?"

"He's already disappointed in me. I don't want to add to it with him knowing I'm struggling to be an artist."

Carly shook her head then whispered out with a bit of disbelief, "I think the only thing he would be disappointed with you about is that you've been lying to him for how long?"

"About five years?" he admitted sheepishly.

"Five years? I think he might have a little right to be disappointed that his son just couldn't tell him that he wanted to be an artist instead of whatever Granddad thought you should be. Granddad didn't even want dad to go into the Air Force. You really think dad would take Granddad's side?"

Spencer remained silent and preferring to keep his eyes on the road.

A few moments later, Carly looked out the window and saw a particular building that caught her eye. She reached over and playfully slapped Spencer's shoulder to instruct him, "Pull over."

Spencer glanced over to where she was talking about and raised a curious eyebrow. "What? Why?"

She blew out a breath and rolled her eyes as she stated a little impatiently, "Just pull over."

The artist relented and pulled into the parking lot of the church that caught Carly's attention.

* * *

The teenagers were sitting next to one another on the steps of the church as they waited for Spencer to return from inside. It took some verbal dueling with Spencer to do as she asked, but he finally relented and entered the church.

Freddie shifted his eyes back and for a few times then cautiously asked, "Why is Spencer going to get your bottle of water blessed?"

"Precaution," she calmly answered as she looked out across the street and any other moment that would catch her eye.

"For what?"

She broke into a small smile as she answered, "Malika."

The tech-producer slightly frowned in confusion before asking, "Why?"

The brunette slightly shook her head as she answered with a calm voice, "She can teleport people and has controllable pyrokinesis."

Freddie's brow furled as he asked with a bit of disbelief, "But Holy Water? That's kind of implying that you think—"

Carly rolled her eyes and blew out a breath then interrupted him, "I don't care who or what she worships. I don't care if she worships the tooth fairy or nothing at all, I just care that she can chuck fireballs at us if she wanted to and I know we need some protection in case she starts getting a little careless with her tricks."

Freddie sighed as he started, "Carls—"

"She was so careless last time she almost set your hair on fire—" She paused as she realized that might not have happened with this Freddie, so she quickly finished, "—or did that not happen with you?"

Freddie subconsciously reached up and grab a bit of the front of his hair as he answered, "It happened; oh did it happen so I see your point."

The brunette put on a curious smile as she asked her seating companion, "So you went with her to the Girls' Choice Dance too?"

Freddie lifted a corner of his mouth and reluctantly admitted, "Yeah… she wasn't my first choice."

Carly chuckled, "The girls chose Freddie. That's the point."

The tech-producer frowned slightly and glanced away as he retorted, "Yeah, well I… I was hoping that you would—my Carly would have asked me, but she turned me down."

The brunette slightly frowned, but not out of any kind of off putting of him asking the other Carly. "You asked her?"

Freddie whispered out with a tired voice, "No, I just blatantly hinted at her and she knew I was, but she still turned me down." He looked to meet her eyes and asked curiously, "Your Freddie didn't hint with you?

She sadly shook her head. "I would have been happy to go with him, but he didn't even give a hint that he wanted to go with me. He told me later that he knew that I wanted a real date and not just him escorting me." She smiled warmly as she thought back on it, "He always puts me first…"

Freddie looked away and bit his tongue for a moment before whispering, "I wanted a real date with her and that's why she turned me down…"

Carly blinked then gently rested a hand on his forearm resting on his knee from his loosely crossed legs. "Wait? She knew you liked her? Back then?"

Freddie looked down at her hand on his forearm. He was still surprised and a little bit unnerved that Carly apparently didn't have any problem with physical contact with him. He brushed that thought away and nearly snapped out his answer in the hopes that she didn't notice is pause, "Yep."

Carly shook her head and blew out a soft breath. "I wonder how things would have been different if he had let me know earlier."

The tech-producer looked at her with a bit of surprise as he asked, "Earlier as in… him liking you?"

She gave him a small smile as she nodded her head then answered, "Yeah… well, I knew he liked me when we were really young, like when we started iCarly but then he just stopped."

The brown eyed teenager raised an eyebrow, unsure of what she meant by 'stopped'. "I don't understand, 'stopped'."

She snorted out a soft breath through her nose and softly let out a laugh. She wore a big smile as she answered with a surprisingly upbeat tone, "Like zero interest in wanting me to be his girlfriend. After we started iCarly, he just never brought up liking me more than a friend. I thought he had just gotten over his little crush of me. I didn't know it at the time, but mom had told you—him that he couldn't chase me like a love sick puppy. She didn't want him to get hurt because at the time I wasn't interested and didn't want us to be awkward with one another."

"But he's your boyfriend now… what changed? Did he start liking you again?"

Carly bowed her head slightly as big grin turned into a small smile, "He had always loved me, but he just kept it a secret. A piece of me always kind of suspected, but I didn't know the truth until he finally told me that night after I found out Steven was cheating on me with Tori."

Freddie looked down and licked his lips as he gathered his thoughts. He looked up and Carly was slightly taken aback at seeing a bit of fear in his eyes. "What… what caused you to give him a chance? Rebounding from Steven?"

She took a deep breath as she realized that her next words were going to be very important to him. She gave him a comforting smile. "No, he was just my Freddie and I opened my eyes to see that my best friend had been the one I was looking for all along."

The tech-producer looked at her with mild shock and disbelief on his face that her answer was that simple. This Carly had accepted him or at least the other him for who he was and not somebody he wasn't… he didn't have to be a little less normal to be accepted.

She grinned at him and looped her arm through his right arm and rested her head on his shoulder. She asked with cheerful tone, "So, if you're not with the other me, who's the lucky girl you're with? I know if you're not carrying a torch for her than some lucky girl has had to snatch you up."

Freddie swallowed down nervously and he could almost feel the color drain away from his face as he thought about how exactly he was going to answer her question.

* * *

Author's note: Sorry about a slight cliffhanger. Like I wrote, I hope to get the next chapter out tomorrow and have another two chapter update next Friday.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's note: Hey my dear readers. I was hoping that this chapter would have been part of last weekend's update, but you know how real life can get in the way. I hope you enjoy this chapter and I hope to get another one out on Saturday before the next Friday's update. Happy reading.

* * *

Chapter 5

Carly could feel his sudden tension through his shoulder and heard an audible swallow from him. If she lifted her head, she didn't doubt she would see the brown eyed teenager gulped like a fish a few times. She tried to suppress a bit of laughter threatening to come from her throat at his apparent reaction to her question. She didn't find it hard to believe that he could be just as much a gentlemen about not kissing and telling or… he was just shy as his head apparently was frozen in place as he continued to look across the street. He whispered out nervously, "Ah—"

She was about to change the subject as his reaction made her realize very quickly that his love life may be too sensitive a subject for him, but Spencer called out behind them, "Okay, I got the water."

Carly pulled her head off of his shoulder and the pair looked over their shoulders with their faces fairly close together to see Spencer wearing a weary expression as he held up the bottle of water. "Can we get this over with?"

The pair looked back to each other, Freddie with a look of relief and Carly with mild annoyance even if she herself was about to change the topic of conversation. She blew out a breath and rolled her eyes to stand up then offered her hand to help Freddie up.

He gave her an apologetic smile as he grasped her hand and attempted to stand up. He miscalculated how much strength she had to pull him up as he didn't support himself enough to stand, so instead of rising to his feet, he fell on his bottom and pulled her down with him due to her inability to support his weight. Fortunately, he caught the falling brunette with her dropping into his lap.

She instinctively threw her arms around the back of his neck to catch herself. She blew out a surprise breath as a bit of her hair fell in her face and their mutual brown eyes met.

He gave her an apologetic expression as he whispered, "Sorry."

She pulled her left hand from behind his neck and brushed her hair out of her face. She gave him a slightly playful smile as she commented, "I sometimes forget how strong you are. You went through rehab too?"

Apparently she got her meaning about his strength and he put a smile on his face as he answered, "Yeah… I didn't win that contest with the Taco Truck."

She instantly frowned as his response went too far for her about the incident and slightly admonished him, "That's not funny; you nearly _died_."

He gave her an apologetic frown as his eyes told her that he realized how much it bothered her by making a joke of the matter. "Okay," he replied with a soft tone to try to convey his regret, "but it happened to me and I had to laugh."

Her eyes drooped and her mouth fell to a pitiful frown as she whispered, "I understand… some of us had to cry…" She watched as his expression changed from one of regret to slight bewilderment and thoughtfulness on his face as if her statement was something that had never occurred to him.

Spencer cleared his throat and caught the teenagers' attention again.

Carly looked down embarrassingly with a slight flush appearing on her cheeks while Freddie broke eye contact and cleared his throat. The brunette pushed off her boyfriend's counterpart's lap and stood up with Freddie quickly following her to get on his feet.

Freddie subconsciously brushed himself off as he kept his eyes off of the web-hostess and Spencer.

Carly visibly ignored him trying to avoid eye contact as she looked to the lanky artist and put on her best hopeful expression. "Okay, let's go see Malika."

In Route to Magic Malika's Residence  
Seattle, WA  
Saturday, August 20, 2011

Carly glanced into the rearview mirror to see Freddie blowing out a breath as he glanced out the window to see the passing scenery. She smirked then laughed as she saw her Freddie's counterpart's mannerism. "Oh no, you are not off the hook answering my question just because Spencer interrupted us."

Freddie looked even more nervous as she was backing him into a corner.

Spencer raised a curious eyebrow as he asked, "What are you talking about?"

She let out a soft laugh as he answered, "I wanted to know who the lucky girl Freddie is with since he's not with your Carly." She caught a brief look of embarrassment on her brother's counterpart before he replaced it with an even expression while she looked over her shoulder to Freddie and wore a bit of a mischievous smirk. "Let me guess… ah… just some of the obvious ones off the top of my head. I'm guessing Wendy?"

Freddie tilted his head slightly to the side and narrowed his gaze on her.

"No, not Wendy? Ah…" She put a knowing smile on her face. "Did you get with Shelby? I know she had a thing for you. You were the only one not afraid of her."

Freddie blinked with evident surprise at the suggestion while her statement caused Spencer to slightly turn his head to glance over to her.

"Eyes on road Spencer," she firmly instructed the artist with only a passing glance of her own.

The artist snapped his sight back in front of him.

She blew out a breath as she was a little surprise that they wouldn't take a shot or maybe they did get together for a time and it didn't work out with her traveling schedule. _'Plenty of fish in the sea'_, she thought then guessed again, "So it's not Shelby … Cat?" Carly put on a big grin as she allowed a slight playfulness slip into her voice, "It's Cat isn't it? Cat has always had a little crush on you and she thinks you're really cute."

Freddie blinked in surprise at that suggestion.

She blew out a breath through her nose as she really thought that was a good guess. "No?"

He lifted a corner of his mouth and shook his head.

"Trina? It's not Trina is it? I know she thinks that you're… yummy? Please tell me it's not Trina," she nearly begged as she was a little concern at the possibility.

Freddie cracked a smile as he answered, "Ah… no."

"Good…" She lifted her right hand and waved off her own thought as she closed her eyes for a moment. "I'm sorry that's mean, I just… I think Trina just needs to look more outward than inward before she could make any relationship work."

The artist snorted out with a soft breath as he laughed, "Hey, you haven't exactly been stellar with your choices of guys—"

She snapped back before he could go any further with his comment, "Hey, I just had bad taste in guys okay? I was a good girlfriend to all of them."

Spencer retorted, "Griffin—"

The web-hostess frowned as she countered, "I was fourteen and I was going through my 'bad boy' phase. I like to point out mom never got over hers and you should be grateful that she didn't: she married hers… three days after her eighteenth birthday and you born eleven months later _'Mister Happy Accident'_. And who is mature at fourteen? You didn't like me dating him. Mom _certainly_ didn't like me dating him. So why are you complaining I dumped him?"

Her little spiel seemed to mollify the older Shay sibling for the moment as he turned to concentrate on the last little bit of the trip.

Carly shook her head and blew out a breath. "Okay… Jade? You're her type if she's not with Beck." She slightly frowned as she remembered something then whispered, "I'm kind of worrying about those two. Their arguing has started picking up…"

The alternate Carly missed Freddie raise an eyebrow at her last suggestion and was about to respond, "Ah…Tori?" Carly softly bit her bottom lip. "André might not be happy… assuming he ever realizes how much he likes her, but that would be his lose for not realizing it sooner."

Freddie raised a curious eyebrow. "Wait, you wouldn't have a problem with me thinking Tori's attractive?"

She raised a curious eyebrow in response as she slowly asked, "Why would I?"

The facial response she read from his face suggested to her that he was clearly caught off with her question.

He shook his head and started, "Oh nothi—"

Spencer blew out an irritated breath as he interrupted, "You hit him with an orange for thinking so."

Carly's mouth became a thin line as her brow furled with confusion as she glanced to Spencer. "What?"

The older Shay child casually answered, "He thought Tori was hot and you threw an orange at him for it."

The pale teenager put on a deep frowned as she was highly offended by the accusation. "I didn't—I wouldn't throw anything at Freddie. Why on earth would your sister do that?"

Spencer was slightly caught off guard by her response and answered with a tone to her ears of him trying to backtrack how flippantly he had answered her original question, "Because she—you didn't like him just gawking at a picture of Tori,"

The brunette snorted out a breath and gave him a slight frown to convey her annoyance. "Gawking? If your sister and Freddie weren't together, what is it of her business that Freddie was looking at Tori? What? He needs her permission to date someone?" she decided to finish with a flippant tone. She snorted out a bit of disgusted breath as she followed up, "It just sounds like your Carly was jealous."

"She was with Steven at the time; she wouldn't be jealous," Freddie answered with what sounded like he was genuinely confused with her position to her ears.

She looked over her shoulder to meet the brown eyed teenager. "She was with Steven when this happened? Ohhhh… it was like that?" Carly shook her head and rolled her eyes. "I see."

Freddie lifted a hand and asked with a perplexed expression, "What do you mean?"

She let out a patient laugh, "Isn't it obvious? She's with Steven yet she didn't like the fact that you could be interested in Tori. She was obviously going through the whole, 'I don't want you, but I don't want anyone else to have you' mentality, but that usually just goes for exes."

She missed seeing Spencer roll his eyes as he made a turn with the vehicle and called out, "You are exes."

Carly snapped her head to look at him with a look of complete shock as she snapped out, "What?"

Freddie looked a little sheepish from Spencer's revelation.

"You dated for what? A few days after the whole taco truck incident."

Carly snapped her head around to ask with a bit of apprehension, "You got together after saving my—her life?"

"Yeah… it didn't work out," he whispered and refusing to meet her eyes as he suddenly found the passing scenery more interesting.

"So you do like your Carly?"

Freddie held his tongue as he finally turned his head to meet the pale web-hostess eyes with an impassive expression.

Carly responded with a curious expression on her face as Spencer answered the question, "He got over you after he started dating Sam."

Carly blinked and looked to Spencer as she missed Freddie's brief look of irritation.

The oldest Shay child continued, "But that didn't work out either. He and Sam just broke up two weeks ago."

The brunette put on an even expression. "Oh? Oh, ah… you and Sam?" she softly laughed out. She cleared her throat and gave him an apologetic look when she saw the tech-producer still wearing his disapproving expression misinterpreting who was the target of his irritation. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have laughed. I'm sorry it didn't work out… neither worked out."

He raised an eyebrow at her as he gave her a questioning expression, "You're surprised? I would get with Sam?"

"You and Sam? Well… my Sam is with Brad since just before we got out of school for the summer. I just never thought you two could go that way… about a serious relationship. You're just too different, but the same thing could be said with her being with Brad. I guess I could see it… wait. You said that your Sam sabotaged your chance at NERD camp, why would you get with her?"

Freddie attempted to clear his throat before attempting to answer the question, but Spencer was just a bit quicker to the draw, "You convinced him not to dump her over it—"

Freddie picked up, "The part where she told me 'Who cares?' when I lost my chance at going. She said I should just forgive Sam and just accept that's the way Sam is… a wild monkey she described her, but it was worth it because she could be a lot of fun."

Carly frowned as she responded with a borderline accusatory tone, "What a bunch of chizz!"

The tech-producer blinked as he was caught off by her response.

The brunette could feel her chest tightening up and what her father called 'Shay rage' that he regretted that she inherited from him rising up and causing her pale cheeks to flush with a bit of crimson as she started accepting the fact that what he had told her earlier about Sam messing up his camp trip wasn't just part of her nightmare, but was part of this real world. "Okay, Sam really does mess up your dream of going to NERD camp—where you could have gotten into any college you wanted and there wouldn't have been any chance of _us_ not going to college together—and your Carly just tells you _'Who cares?'_ and that it's alright because 'that's just the way Sam is' so you wouldn't break up with her for it? Because she can be fun somehow made up for it? That's a bunch of chizz. If Carly is really your friend, she's supposed to be the first one that cares, but I guess it's pretty obvious who she cares about more."

Carly took several quick breaths to try to calm her nerves as she was outright visibly fuming from how her counterpart's actions towards Freddie while he in turned looked at her with complete shock.

Freddie finally found his voice and started, "I think you're being a little harsh—"

Her rage was reignited as she snapped back, "Harsh? We're not talking about your Sam accidentally deleting a song off your PearPhone or some other arguably silly thing; we're talking about her janking over one of your dreams and our—your _college plans_. Do you really think by the way your Sam and Carly acted that they would have accepted you saying 'Who cares?' if you messed up a trip for Sam to go to the Fat Cakes factory or an internship for one of her culinary classes just because you wanted to be spiteful over the fact that _she didn't know what time it was_?"

The brown eye teenager bit his tongue and he set his jaw tight as he met her challenging gaze.

Spencer announced sheepishly as he pulled the Shay SUV to a stop in front of Magic Malika's home, "We're here."

The brunette held her gaze on her boyfriend's counterpart for a few more seconds before shaking her head and closing her eyes. She turned back to sit correctly in the seat then opened her eyes a moment later and unbuckled her seatbelt. She opened the passenger door and mumbled out in disgust, "Come on… I want to wake up from this nightmare of what I became without mom here." She hopped out of the vehicle and turned her back to the mixed stares of confusion from Spencer and embarrassment from Freddie.

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Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed a little bit of Creddie. This was also a bit of a setup chapter to see Freddie's mindset and feelings of really (my take) dating Sam. Have a happy weekend.


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Note: Hello everyone. Thank you for your patience with this chapter. Last week was my birthday then I got _really_ sick, so I didn't get a chance to do as much writing I can usually accomplish. I'm currently working on the next two chapters and hope to get the next one out before next Friday then the following one next Friday.

Also, I really wish I would have been able to get this out last week before iPear Store since I had an identical reference that Carly didn't get was written before the episode aired. You'll just have to accept my word that line was written before the episode aired. See if you can catch it. Man, I'm still kicking myself from the inability to get this chapter completed before that episode aired.

One last thing, due to the nature of this story having supernatural and preternatural elements to it, please remember this is a work of fiction and thus it is not meant to be a serious examination on any theology or offend anyone's particular religious beliefs due to the use of certain premises accepted for storytelling purposes and author's interpretation of Dan's work.

Well, on with the next chapter.

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Chapter 6

Magical Malika Residence  
Seattle, WA  
Saturday, August 20, 2011

Carly took a deep breath to calm her nerves as she walked onto the front porch and stopped just in front of the white front door. She slightly squeezed the bottle water in her left hand to help release some of the tension from hearing about this world's Sam and Carly's behavior. She pushed her thoughts and feelings to the side as she had more immediate concerns. After a few more breaths, she glanced over her shoulder then motioned towards the door with her right hand. "If she liked you, you go first." She gave him a hopeful smile, "She'll be more receptive in talking to you?"

Freddie slightly shook his head as he apparently was putting aside their conversation for the moment then finished taking the last few steps up the front porch to stand beside her. He lifted his hand and softly knocked on the door.

The three waited a few moments for the door to open and reveal the smiling face of Malika. She still had her dirty blonde curls and wore a flowery shawl over her shoulders, but other than that she wore casual clothing instead of her usual eccentric clothing. Carly figured that even she needed a break from her usual attire on the weekends.

"Hi Freddie," the magician greeted him with an upbeat tone that matched her smiling expression.

Freddie glanced to Carly for the briefest of moments for support then gave Malika an awkward smile as he gave her a small wave. "Hi Malika."

She smiled a few more seconds then the magician turned her attention to Carly and gave the brunette a weary expression. She slowly spoke, "Carly?"

The web-hostess wore a crooked smile as her response.

Malika narrowed her eyes on the brunette. "There's something… off about you."

Carly blew out a breath then answered, "Yes, that's why we're here."

She glanced to the bottle of water in Carly's hand and from the sour expression she was giving the web-hostess realized the magician understood what she was holding. She looked up to meet the brunette's eyes and asked with a guarded tone, "What's with the Holy Water?"

Carly spared a glance down at her plastic bottle then answered confidently, "Protection?"

Malika slightly frowned and tapped her fingertips on her jean covered thigh.

The pale web-hostess didn't skip a beat as she explained, "You can control fire and teleport people."

Carly held her ground as held a stare and asked in a tone that showed that she was clearly offended by what Carly was trying to imply, "So you bring Holy Water with you?"

The pale brunette shook her head. "I'm not here to debate religious faith with you about the implications of whether Holy Water would or wouldn't work on you. I'm here for your help—"

Malika wore a deep frown as she interrupted with a sharp tone, "That's still some way of trying to pursue me to help you."

"I'm not threatening you with it." Carly blew out an irritated breath as she wanted to avoid the argument. "Look, I'm from an alternate universe and we're here to see if you can switch me back with your Carly."

Carly saw from the corner of her eye Spencer rolling his eyes at her statement. The brunette ignored her brother's counterpart to continue, "We have either aliens or magic doing this to me and your Carly and since we don't know of any aliens… we're left with a magician."

The curly haired teenager narrowed her gaze at the pale brunette as she suddenly felt she was being examined under a microscope. Malika finally spoke with a bit of a defensive tone, "I didn't do it."

Carly blew out a relieved breath and glanced to their feet as she wouldn't have to argue or try to convince the girl that she was telling the truth and not crazy. She looked back up and retorted, "I didn't say you did, just that you're the only one we knew that could help me. You can teleport people. I've seen you teleport yourself… well your other self. You're the real deal."

Malika remained silent for a few more moments, but Carly held fast under her hard gaze.

The fellow Ridgeway student blew out a breath and shook her head. She looked back up at Carly and motioned with her head for them to enter her home. "Come in." She didn't wait for the three as turned to head back inside.

Carly was right on her heel with Freddie wasting no time in following his friend's counterpart, but Spencer far more cautious as he stepped one foot past the threshold then paused before finishing his stride.

The brunette followed the magician up the stairs and down a hallway until they entered her room. The magician was the first inside her room and from the smile Carly saw on the girl's face, Malika was quite proud of it.

The web-hostess cautiously entered the girl's sanctuary with Freddie surprisingly close behind her. So close she thought she could almost feel the heat radiating off of his chest onto the back of her sweatshirt hoodie. She tried to suppress the goosebumps threatening to form on her skin from the closeness as her mind was tricked into thinking that it was her Freddie close to her. It was actually a recent phenomenon that started just after they started dating since she had always been physically comfortable with her Freddie.

She tried to push all that aside by focusing her attention on Malika's room and saw that it was decorated with various candles and crystals and various other 'New Age' items scattered around the room on dressers, wall shelves and work desk. It was almost comical at how stereotypical in its appearance one would expect for her.

Freddie glanced around and nervously commented while separating from Carly, "Interesting room."

"Thank you, I try," the dirty blonde gleefully commented to the tech-producer as she walked over to her desk and had a seat in black office chair.

Carly motioned with her head to the lanky artist and introduced, "Oh, this is Spencer. He's my older brother in both universes."

Spencer held his tongue at her description of him.

Malika politely nodded her head to Spencer then turned to look back at Carly. "So you're from a different universe?"

"Yes," she answered confidently.

"That's still left open to discussion," Spencer commented dryly.

Carly spared a glance over her shoulder at Spencer that showed that she was equally running out of patience with him on the matter of whether she was a different Carly or something was wrong with her head.

Malika raised a curious eyebrow as she asked, "There are doubts?"

Carly rolled her eyes as she blew out a breath and answered, "He thinks I just hit my head last night or before I left my granddad's."

Malika took a deep breath then stood up from her seat to approach Carly. She turned her head slightly to look at Spencer and explain, "If you'll trust me for a moment, I can see if she's had any sort of head injury." The magician looked back to the pale web-hostess with a hopeful expression.

Carly blew out a breath and answered, "Fine, if it will help settle his mind."

Malika smiled as she reached up and gently cupped Carly's face and rested her thumb pads on top of the front of her cheeks. The brunette looked a little apprehensive as the magician stared into her eyes. She felt like the curly haired teenager was looking into her soul which with all things considered today that just might be exactly what the magician. She gently tilted her head down for a moment then back up then side to side while maintaining her gaze.

"Well?" Spencer asked a little impatiently.

Malika maintained her eye contact while answering the anxious artist with a calm voice, "Patience… reading the auras of followers of Christ, those of the Hebrew faith and practitioners of Islam are always difficult compared to others."

"Why?" Freddie was curious.

"Interference… He doesn't like people poking around human souls. I heard a story one time of some poor seer having her eyes burned right out of her eye sockets when she caught a glance of the true form of an angel when she was warned to stop poking where she wasn't wanted."

Freddie swallowed and Spencer looked a little squeamish from the mental image of such a thing occurring from what Carly could tell as her face was still directed to look at Malika.

A few more moments, Malika dropped her hands and blew out a breath. "You're not crazy and there isn't anything wrong with your head. You're not our Carly… you don't match with the rest of the world."

Freddie took in a deep breath as if Carly was reading him correctly he was just reacting to confirmation to something he already believed.

Spencer rolled his and softly shook his head.

The curly haired teenager looked to Spencer and reiterated, "This Carly is not your sister."

Spencer lowered his head and palmed his forehead. "This is absolutely nuts—"

Malika assured him, "It doesn't make it any less true."

Spencer threw his hands out and shouted, "No it isn't! You expect me to believe that she just switched with another Carly in another world instead of the most likely thing that happened is that she hit her head and it's making it all up for her?"

"It's going to be okay Spencer," she whispered trying to comfort herself as much as him.

Malika blew out a soft breath through her nose then looked calmly at the slowly unhinging artist. She spoke softly, in an almost otherworldly voice, "Whether you believe or not is irrelevant. Reality does not care what you believe. The truth is the truth. This is not your Carly and this is not her world."

Her words quieted him for the moment and he bowed his head and decided to have a seat on the edge of the magician's bed. Freddie stood muted as he slightly shook his head.

Carly spoke up in a whisper, almost afraid to break surreal moment, "Can you help me?"

Malika shook her head and gave her a sad expression. She answered with a sad tone, "Teleporting people around the planet is one thing… even to the other side of the galaxy, teleporting people between the barriers that separate realities is an entirely different thing. I'm no where near that powerful… I'm not sure there is any human that is that strong. If we had the most powerful mages on the planet, at Stonehenge during a winter or summer solstice they might, just might able to punch a hole out, but not much else… certainly not switching two people from two different universes."

Carly took a sharp breath as the answered chilled her, "Then what could do this to me? Why would anyone do this to me if it's so much trouble?"

Malika blinked then commented as if it was the most obvious question, "Why are you assuming this is about you? How do you know this isn't about Carly of our world?"

Carly looked to her with a confused expression. "Why would anyone want to send her to my world?"

Spencer barely spoke above a whisper, but they "Maybe to see mom?"

She turned her attention subdued artist. "I thought you didn't believe me?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I'm just throwing out a reason."

The magician slightly frowned as she looked back and forth between the siblings. "I don't understand," she asked with a genuinely confused tone.

Spencer answered, "Our mother is deceased—"

Carly interrupted, "My mother is quite alive."

"Oh… maybe our Carly needs to talk with your mom."

The brunette looked to the curly haired blonde for a moment as she thought about the possibility of something giving the other Carly a chance to see someone close to her lost mother and her presence here as an afterthought to the other Carly. "If that's the case then we go back to whom or what could do that?"

Malika looked down to the floor and cover her mouth with her right hand. She dropped her hand then looked back to Carly. "Once you take humans out of the equation, there aren't many things left that could do it."

Carly raised an eyebrow and motioned with her head as she asked, "And those are…?"

"Gods… gods are the first thing to come to mind and even then it's a stretch for one of them. Thunder and lightning and all the other things you can imagine them doing is relatively easy for them, but manipulation of time and space requires really messing with the natural laws of not just the universe, but in your case, two universes."

Freddie flippantly commented with the roll of his eyes, "The Doctor?"

Carly turned and looked to him with a raised eyebrow.

Freddie cracked an uneasy smile and awkwardly laughed, "Lord of Time and Space… oh never mind, bad joke."

The pale web-hostess slightly shook her head realizing he was making a cukey joke like her own Freddie. The brunette took a quick breath then looked back to Malika. "I'm not one to put my faith in the benevolence of false gods even if they could do this, so what is the one thing you are absolutely sure could do this to us?"

Malika took a breath as she had a seat on the edge of her bed. She glanced down at the floor as if she was contemplating the answer. She looked up with a curious expression and maybe a bit of fear that she wouldn't be believed even after all that she had already said, "Short of an angel? Nothing that I know of could switch you."

Spencer slowly spoke, "An angel? As in—"

Malika turned her full attention to Spencer as she answered with a solemn voice, "An Angel of the Lord… an Angel of the Lord would have the power since they exist outside of our creation with the full force of Heaven behind them."

"Like 'It's a Wonderful Life'?" Spencer suggested with in inappropriate laugh.

Carly, Freddie and Malika looked to the artist with slight frowns and annoyed glances. The lanky artist swallowed down embarrassingly and looked down to the floor as if he was a scolded child. The magician was the first to speak, "You're probably more correct than you think."

The brunette noticed Freddie started pacing about the room and put on an expression just like her own Freddie when he started putting his mind on something. He covered his mouth with his hand for a moment then finally whispered, "It's all back…"

Carly snapped her attention to Freddie. "What?"

He narrowed his eyes as it looked like he was struggling to recall something. "Something you said—our Carly said a few Christmases ago. It was after the time Spencer made the magnetic tree—"

Carly rolled her eyes. "Oh my God, Spencer burned up the Christmas presents and nearly set the living room on fire. He just won't listen to dad about not being good with electrical wiring."

"Hey!" the older Shay shouted a bit offended from her comment.

Carly looked to her brother's counterpart. "You are—he's not good at it. Just accept it."

Spencer frowned and looked away for a moment.

The brunette blew out a breath then turned to her boyfriend's counterpart. "As you were saying?"

Freddie shook his head then picked up his train of thought, "Right… Carly was surprised that the studio was the way it was, like… she had seen it not as the studio…"

Spencer spoke up, "And she was suddenly insistent that we keep the tree when she came down. She had a complete change of heart… I could never figure out why."

Malika asked curiously, "So this happened before?"

Carly was quick to speak up, "I've never switched with anyone before."

The dirty blonde suggested, "Maybe not with you, but she might have experienced some other universe and if it was during Christmas… definitely pointing to an angel. She might really have had a 'Wonderful Life' moment as Spencer suggested."

Freddie with a hesitant tone spoke up, "And she's having another one?"

Carly shook her head then looked to Spencer. "I guess your Carly has a better idea what is going on… but why? Why have one now?"

Freddie snorted out as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Your guess is as good as anything we could suggest, but a lot of good it does us since we can't do anything about it."

The alternate Carly really didn't have a response to the physical identical boy to her own friend, only that she wish she could comfort him as she could see the worry in his eyes, but was unsure what to do. She looked to Malika and asked, "So that's really true? We just have to hope whoever did this to me will switch me back?"

Malika tried to give her a supportive smile as she answered, "Yes, because I am not summoning an angel to try to get any answers… worst than summoning a demon."

Carly slightly frowned with Spencer and Freddie giving her concerned looks.

She held up her hands and in a higher than normal pitch voice, "I have never summoned a demon. You have to be absolutely nuts or some stupid teenager who wants to be a rock star or most popular kid in school to get involved with them. Besides that fact that they are evil, it always costs you your soul and if you dare renege on them legend says they send Hellhounds after you to collect your soul and it gets messy from there." She blew out a breath, "You just have to wait for whatever the angels or Creator has planned for our Carly to play out."

Carly shook her head then whispered in frustration, "Oh jamn it."


	7. Chapter 7

Author's note: Hey everyone. It's been a while since I've been able to update this story with things in real life and working on other stories. It's now the summer and I took me about a two week break in writing relax and recharge my batteries for more writing. I hope you enjoy this new chapter. Let me know what you think, reviews do make a difference.

* * *

Chapter 7

Shay Apartment  
Seattle, WA  
Saturday, August 20, 2011

The ride home was a silent one as Spencer kept his entire focus on the road without ever passing a glance over to Carly; Freddie kept his attention out the passenger window while Carly retreated into her own mind and trying her best to tune out the rest of the world.

Spencer was the first one into the apartment as he unlocked the front door and pushed open the door for the trailing teenagers behind him. Carly was next behind him stepping inside the apartment and wore a tired smile as she watched Spencer take an immediate right turn and head straight to his room without another word to either teenager. She slowly let out a breath as she realized this version of her brother needed some time to process what they learned. She glanced over her left shoulder to see Freddie had stopped just behind her with an uncertain expression on his face as he shut the door behind them.

The brunette looked over to the corner that led to Spencer's room and called out, "I'm going to go to my—her room." She quickly looked back to Freddie and grabbed his right hand then started pulling him along with her as she headed up the stairs.

The non-couple quickly reached Carly's bedroom door and entered the teenage girl's room. Freddie casually walked past her and had a seat at the end of the couch in the direction of her desk while she blew out a tired breath and took off her zipped hoodie to drop it over the headrest of the chair resting at the end of the coffee table.

Carly had a seat on her couch next to the iCarly technical producer and looked down at the water coffee table that was identical to her own. She watched as Freddie leaned forward and rested his forearms against his knees as he stared at the still water. The pair remained silent for a few minutes as they settled in their respective seats with the only noise was their soft breathing as each contemplated the situation and struggled with why.

The iCarly technical producer was the first to break the silence with a soft whisper, "You're going to be alright and she's going to be alright."

She leaned back on the couch and put on a half-hearted smile as she asked, "Are you trying to comfort me or yourself?"

He blew out a tired breath then turned his head to his right to give her a wearily response with an equally tired smile, "A little bit of both."

She cracked a smile and let out a soft laugh, "I appreciate the concern, but… are you concern because she's your friend or… you still have feelings for her?"

Freddie took a deep breath and slowly let it out as he turned his attention back to stare at the water and let his silence be his answer.

Carly giggled softly with a slight shake of her head. "I'll take that as a yes."

He ignored her statement, but the brunette was not persuaded to stop as she sat back up and slowly shook her head with an uncertain smile forming on her face. "I can see it in your eyes… I just don't understand after what I've learned about her why you could care so much."

Freddie blinked as his frown grew deeper then his brow furled. He retorted with a tone that clearly showed his offense to her statement while meeting her eyes, "You can't judge someone on a few bad choices. No one's perfect."

The Seattle teenager raised an eyebrow as she saw her chance and asked the prodding question, "So you realize what she did was wrong? I'm glad to see you don't put her on a pedestal either."

He took a sharp breath as he shut his mouth tightly.

She licked her soft, pink lips for a fraction of a second before continuing, "How do you trust or love a friend who is willing to tell you that they don't care that you lost your chance to any college you want or hit you for being honest with her about who you find attractive?"

The brown eyed teenager broke eye contact as he clenched his jaw. He had an answer for her about how he could trust his Carly's behavior when seeing Tori for the first time on the computer screen, but it would only prove _her_ point.

Carly raised her hands and whispered, "Okay, let's just put that aside for a moment." She dropped her hands and asked with a sincere tone, "If you love your Carly, why did you get with Sam especially since she's willing to sabotage your dreams?"

He started with sharp tone then finished with a softer tone, "_It's_… complicated."

The brunette nodded for a moment then cautiously asked, "How is it complicated?

"Carls, just let it go," he answered as he attempted to stand up, but she placed a soft hand on his right forearm. The gesture stopped him after shifting his weight to stand then relented to relaxing in his seat.

She softly shook her head and calmly answered, "No. It doesn't make sense to me. I get it if you're trying to move on if your Carly doesn't like you, but with this Sam…"

He shook his head with a tired gesture and blew out a breath. He took a calm breath and began, "Because I was tried of always being rejected."

Carly's mouth became a thin line as her brow furled with confusion.

He leaned back on the couch and stared up at the ceiling as he continued with a hollowed tone, "I was just tired. I had been rejected by you time and time and time again for any loser that would catch your—her eyes. I tried dating other girls just to ease the pain and the loneness or really try to move on, but it would never work out. I think it was watching the whole thing with you and Steven played out and my last attempt to try to be someone that finally had me just said 'to Hell with it' and just go with Sam."

The brunette looked on patiently as she saw and heard just the beginning of his story that describing it as complicated was an accurate description.

Freddie clenched his jaw for a moment then picked up with a hint of anger in his voice, "You were all in love with Steven that you thought you'd marry him, but who you barely knew while ignoring what we had been through after the taco truck incident just after Gibby stabbed me in the back with moving in on Patrice when he knew I was interested and pursuing her… while suddenly claiming that he wasn't exclusive with his girlfriend—"

Carly didn't mean to interrupt, but she uttered her question before she could stop herself, "Your Gibby cheated on Tasha too?"

Freddie sat back up in his seat and looked somewhat caught off guard from her question then answered after a few moments of hesitation, "Yeah."

She snorted out a bit of disgust as she recalled what happened in her world, "He started cheating on her just after our Moonlight Tri-Blood movie. I can't believe he would do that after all the fuss he made when he thought she had cheated on him with you. I guess you knocking him out actually knock sense out of him than in him."

The tech producer blinked and mouth open and closed like a fish several times before asking, "I did—he did what?"

She shrugged a shoulder whilst she bashfully answered, "You were showing Tasha a camera to her so she could get Gibby one for his birthday, you tripped together on one of the beanbag chairs and he walked in thinking you were getting… frisky. After that Gibby wanted to fight you on iCarly, you told him no several times during the week. Some people thought you were afraid to fight him, but you didn't want to hurt him and mom said that fighting him would acknowledge that he had a valid concern. That week's iCarly rolled around and Gibby wouldn't accept no for an answer, so he hit you and you were forced to put him down."

She snorted out a less than humorous laugh as she finished, "We finally had to just rip part of the hardwood floor up and replace the board to get rid of the bloodstain. We didn't realize how much he could bleed from his nose and mouth."

Freddie took a surprise breath at hearing that explanation. He guessed that his counterpart didn't realize about the filming of the rotting pieces of bread or maybe they didn't even do that bit for the show.

She offered as further explanation, "Your rehab was already paying off."

Freddie nodded along. "Oh… I guess he didn't think of the video with the rotting bread?"

She bit her bottom lip to prevent herself from laughing as she answered, "We realized the video afterwards that would have prevented Gibby from getting hurt _and_ mom banning him from the apartment for a month. It took a while even after that before we let him be in iCarly again."

Freddie whistled with their version of events playing out and just looked to the Shay daughter with a little bit of disbelief.

She held a halfhearted smile at meeting his gaze then finally commented, "Sorry for sidetracking you."

Freddie blinked as he pointed out that she had interrupted his explanation. He took take a deep breath then decided to continue, "Anyway… Sam kissed me during the lock-in at school, but then disappeared for three days before we found her. She thought that the idea of such a thing was so crazy because she hated me that she checked herself into Troubled Waters. It's a m—"

She interrupted him with a clipped tone, "I know what Troubled Waters is."

He slightly frowned at her interruption in that she knew about such a place when obviously things had played out very differently in her world. "How?"

Carly sat up straighter in her seat and cleared her throat. She glanced down back to the coffee table to avoid looking in his eyes.

The brown eyed teenager reached over and rested his hand on top of her left hand and asked with concern, "Carly?"

She looked up to see his concerned eyes and took a deep breath then whispered, "You know a little while ago I mentioned about Granddad wanted me to live with him—"

"Yeah, something similar happened with us a few years ago. Spencer's flying hammer."

She nodded and continued, "Spencer's hammer windmill…" She snorted out a soft breath and grinned as she idly commented, "Jade loved it as a Christmas present. You know her and hammers…"

Freddie maintained a small smile on his face as he took her word for it.

"Well when Granddad saw that on iCarly and that mom wasn't freaking out about it, he thought that mom couldn't take care of me because she so…"

"Like Spencer? I mean I guess Spencer is so much like her?"

"Yeah, she can be… mom can be very childlike at times more so than even Spencer and that concerns Granddad. I heard him hinting about the place with Spencer when they didn't think I was in the room. He thought mom could use a trip there to help her somehow."

"I'm guessing that's why you thought your dad would kill him?"

Carly's nervousness disappeared from dragging up the memory and replaced with a detached expression, "Yes."

Freddie swallowed as he saw the unflinching expression on the lovely teenager's face and the seriousness shown in her eyes.

The brunette picked back up with a guarded tone but finished her statement with disgust in her voice, "So Sam checked herself in there because she thought she was crazy for liking you? And hating you? She seriously checked herself in there? Of all the stupid things to do."

"Yeah well… it certainly was. I was able to convince her that it wasn't crazy for her liking me even if she still hated me, but then when we tried to leave they said that she couldn't leave without her mom picking her up."

Carly rolled her eyes as she sarcastically commented, "Well duh, it's a mental institute; they just don't let you walk out even if you check yourself in."

The muscular teenager refrained from commenting on that point, but continued with the rest of his story, "We couldn't get her out in time for the next iCarly, so it was decided that we would just have the show there."

The web-hostess blinked as she looked to him with a questioning expression, "You're kidding? You had the show there?"

He nodded in confirmation and answered, "Yes."

Carly shook her head and laughed out with a sarcastic tone, "Wow, I can see where your Carly's priorities lie. Friend is stuck in a mental institution, but she's more concerned about the next show?"

Freddie bowed his head to avoid eye contact at he didn't want her to see that he agreed with that sentiment. It gave him the opportunity to take a breath and gather his thoughts enough to finish the story. "Sam confessed to liking me on air, but thought it was the best opportunity to humiliate her by turning her down, but you started asking the viewers whether I should accept Sam. You even got a Seddie fan to scream 'Seddie!' in his basement as a valid argument for getting with her."

He shook his head and put on a regretful smile as he finished, "So… she was clearly interested in me and you… my Carly showed that everyone—I mean everyone was telling me to get with her. It didn't matter to anyone including you and Spencer that Sam still hated me or that she would hit me or insult me or humiliate me… so it just hit: 'Why not?' Why not have a guilt free little relationship with a girl as hot as Sam? Everyone is approving of it, so I must not be doing anything wrong. Heck, maybe she would stop and treat me right if she said she cared about me and if she didn't, why not get a few make out sessions out of it for my troubles? It was kind of a fun kiss during the lock-in. Why not just stop being stand up Benson at least for a little while and be like every other good looking guy wanting to get with a hot girl for some fun?"

Carly lost any bit of humor or amusement from hearing about the other Carly and held a stare studying his brown eyes that were so like her own Freddie's eyes, yet so different at the same time.

Freddie's carefree expression slowed turned to one where he was looking at him with a furled brow and deep frown.

Carly could feel her chest constrict as her heart broke at seeing even this Freddie be reduced to man sitting with her.

He narrowed his gaze and clenched his jaw tightly for a few moments before he finally snapped at her, "Oh shove your judgment of me. I don't have to justify anything to you! You're not my Carly."

Carly's hand shot up to cover her mouth as her eyes shot open looking at her boyfriend's counterpart. She took several deep breaths through her nose as she slowly dropped her hand away from her mouth. She rhetorically asked with a soft tone, "Oh my God… she never stopped bullying you here? Even when you were together?"

Freddie irritated expression transformed into one of quiet stoicism answered her second question.

She let out a slow breath and maintained her sympathetic expression instead of meeting his challenge with an equal angry expression. She felt her emotions for herself and this Freddie being churned and mixed up as if they were in a blender, but one overriding feeling was able to rise to the surface and that was sorrow for what he had experienced.

She leaned forward to invade his personal space and reached up with her right hand to cup his left cheek.

He flinched from her touch and gave her a confused expression while she slightly pulled her hand back.

She flashed a worried expression on her own face, but swallowed her fear as she looked him in the eyes and started slowly again to cup his cheek then slipped her fingers behind his neck and under his ear. She let her thumb pad softly start stroking his upper cheek.

The brunette looked directly into his eyes and Freddie swallowed as she guessed he was seeing exactly what she wanted him—what she needed him to see.

She leaned forward and their lips touched with the gentlest of pressure. She brushed her lips crossed his lips as the tip of her nose played with the tip of his nose. After a few brushes of her lips against his lips, she captured his with a chaste kiss. Freddie closed his eyes and just enjoyed the affection the brunette was sharing with him.

She slightly parted her lips to deepen the kiss. She was in no rush as their lips meddled and he allowed her to set the pace even if a piece of him said he should stop her.

His hands drifted slowly to her hips as she leaned forward to shift more of her weight against him and wrap her left arm around the back of his neck.

He shifted his weight to his right to sit further into the couch then backwards pulling her with him and rested his back against the one armrest of the couch towards her desk. She held on to his cheeks as he slipped his hands around to the small of her back and pulled her tight to him. His hands slipped under the back of her navy T-shirt and started messaging her lower back.

She softly moaned into the kiss they were sharing as the sensation from his fingertips was shooting up her spine and down her lower abdomen. She pulled her lips away to suck in a quick breath then recapture his lips. She started kissing across his lips to the corner of his mouth then trailing kisses across his jaw line. She stopped halfway up his jaw to his ear then started softly planting kissed up until she reached his upper cheek. His eyes were still closed, so with the faintest of touches her lips contacted his eyelid then across the bridge of his nose. She repeated the motion over his other eye then up to plant a kiss on his forehead.

During her soft trail of kisses she had closed her eyes tightly and the first signs of tears started flowing from her tear ducts between her nose and flushing cheeks. She followed the same trail of kisses down his other cheek until he reached his lips again where he was all too eager to reciprocate her contact. Her right hand slipped from his left cheek and slowly down his neck until her hand reached to palm over his heart.

"Whoa!" they heard a voice call out behind Carly.

Carly mouth pulled away from his mouth and looked over her right shoulder. She shifted enough of her body weight to also give Freddie a clear view at the door.

Sam was standing at the threshold of the bedroom with a confused and shocked expression on her face. "What did mama just walk into?"

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Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm going to try to update this on the next couple of Fridays. Thanks for reading.


	8. Chapter 8

Author's Note: Hello everyone. Thanks for continue to read and review (I really appreciate those and try to respond) this story even after my short break from writing on it. I hope you like this chapter.

Boris Yeltsin: Trying my best.

Skittymon: Short answer, I would say that he's not more violent than canon Freddie, just willing to hit the other person back when they start something. I can't tell you why she decided to make out with him knowing that he's not her Freddie without spoiling the story.

Hurtsintheworstway: Thanks, here is the next chapter.

CCougar427098: Thanks. About a 'Carlybot', if you haven't guessed these two stories are meant to be self reflective of _all_ the characters and their actions so that they can become better people.

I think that is everyone and I'm sorry if I missed anyone in the last review.

Slight language and violence warning. It's nothing really big.

* * *

Chapter 8

Carly dropped her hands away from Freddie's face and pulled away from her boyfriend's counterpart to turn completely in her seat to face the dirty blonde. The brunette wore a guarded expression as she looked to the girl who was supposed to be her best friend in this world. She took a moment to wipe the tears from under her eyes then dropped her hand away from her face as she tried to, maybe even willed, to see the difference between the other girl and her Sam. After a few moments of what she took to be a vain effort, she snorted out dismissively, "So you're Sam?"

The other third of the iCarly trio looked to Carly with an obvious confused expression on her face from the reaction from the brunette. She took several more steps into the room and laughed off, "Yeah, I'm Sam. I'm sure not Melanie. What's going on?"

Carly crossed her arms over her chest while giving the blonde a deep frown. She answered with a clipped tone, "I'm kissing him, what does it look like I'm doing?"

She slightly shook her head. "Yeah, I can see that, but why?"

Carly attempted to speak, but Freddie spoke up a hair quicker, "Sam, we need to talk."

She motioned with a hand towards Carly. "About you kissing on Carly? You could have given me a heads up that you two were going to start getting all kissy face with one another. I really didn't want to walk in seeing you two that way."

Carly wore a deep frown as she snapped, "Why? Why should he tell you anything you sorry gank?"

Sam blinked and sucked in a quick breath. Her mouth hung open for a few seconds and looked to Freddie to see if he had heard the same thing. He wore just as a surprised expression as the blonde. The other web-hostess finally asked, "Did you just call me a gank?"

Carly got up from her seat and took a step forward to look at Sam with a harsh glare and set jaw. She whispered out while allowing her anger to seep into her voice, "Yeah, I did—you _gank_."

Sam raised her hands and laughed nervously, "Whoa Carls, what's going on? Did someone switch out your coffee this morning?"

Freddie interrupted with a nervous tone, "She's not our Carly, she's—she's from another world."

Sam bowed her head slightly to look at him with a gaze that questioned his sanity. She snorted out, "What are you babbling about Fredweird?"

The brunette took another step bringing her within about a yard (meter) of the blonde and snapped, "Don't mock him!"

Sam blinked as she was becoming concerned with her friend's behavior. She laughed out softly, "Carls, chill."

The brunette had to bite her tongue softly for a moment to try to hold back her Dorfman sass, but wasn't entirely successful as she spoke, "No I will not chill. You apparently never 'chill' with him even when you dated him, so why should I give you that kind of courtesy?"

Carly could see that Sam was becoming even more baffled and was forced to look to Freddie for some kind of explanation, from her perspective, of whatever had gotten into their friend.

Freddie finally stood up from the couch and stand beside Carly to answer, "That's what I'm trying to tell you: she's not our Carly. She's from another… universe and our Carly is in her world."

Sam glanced between Freddie's worried expression and Carly's look of annoyance bordering on outright anger. She cracked a smile then snorted out a laugh before wrapping an arm around her stomach as she let out a fitful laugh.

Carly frowned deeper while Freddie raised his brow at seeing how Sam was taking the news.

The dirty blonde laughed for a few more seconds and covered her mouth with her left hand as her eyes slightly watered. She dropped her hand and took several breaths to calm down. She split her attention between the pair as she commented slightly out of breath, "That's… that's a good prank. You really had me going there for a moment, but don't you think the whole makeout session was a little overboard?"

Carly responded in a firm voice, "We're not joking. I'm not your Carly. He's not my Freddie, Spencer is not my Spencer, you're not my Sam and my mom is quite alive."

Sam's blue eyes shot open wide while her mouth instantly went into a thin line. Carly bringing her mother into the conversation by suggesting that she was alive sent a slight fearful sensation went down Sam's spine that caused her to slightly shiver in front of the pair.

Carly looked to her friend's alternate and for a moment saw what she would call concern shining through her eyes as if the person standing in front of her was her Sam, but paid it little mind as all the things she had learned about this Sam dominated her thoughts. A part of her felt a slightest of twinges concern at hearing Sam's nervous tone of her asking, "Ah Carly… your mom—your mom's..."

The web-hostess interrupted with a confident voice, "I just came back from seeing her grave. I know your Carly's mom is dead. My mother is alive."

Sam just stared at her and looked completely dumbfounded. The pair stared at one another for a couple of seconds until she looked to Freddie and demanded, "If this isn't some sick joke then why haven't you taken her to a doctor?" Sam didn't wait for Freddie's answer as she looked to Carly. "Carly, you need to go see somebody."

Carly took another step and met Sam eye to eye with an unflinching stare. "Try."

Sam swallowed as apparently her refusal caught the blonde off guard. Carly realized the look she was giving Sam must of spooked her as she looked away and turned her focus to Freddie then asked him indignantly, "You are actually humoring her?"

He gave a slight shake of his head and offered, "She's not our Carly. We've checked."

"How?" she asked with an obviously disbelieving tone. "How do you check to see if she's 'our Carly'?"

Freddie bowed his head down slightly with a look of embarrassment forming on his face. "We went to see Magic Malika and she said…" He motioned to Carly and finished, "That this Carly isn't our Carly."

Sam blew out a disbelieving breath, "That nut? You checked with her and believed whatever crazy story she came up with? This joke has gone on long enough—"

Carly butted in by taking a step between Sam and Freddie and spoke with a firm voice to the blonde, "There isn't anything wrong with me, but there is certainly something wrong with you."

The blonde leaned backwards slightly from surprise and asked, "Me?"

Carly let out a humorless laugh, "From what he's told me how you treat him, oh there is definitely something wrong with _you_."

Sam cocked her head to the side and asked defensively, "You're saying something's wrong with me from what he tells you?" She looked past Carly back to Freddie and spat out, "Chizz, you got me doing it now."

The brunette snapped back sarcastically, "I haven't been here to see it as your Carly; how else am I going to find out? But I think I've heard enough about you… you ruined his college plans. You sabotaged his camp and then had the nerve to say you love him. Do you say 'I love you' between hitting him?" She looked the slightly shorter teenager up and down then snorted out in disgust, "My God, what is wrong with you?"

Sam frowned as Carly looked like she was ready to throw the verbal punches that they hadn't exchanged since the blonde had quit iCarly for a few days. She clenched her jaw and mouth shut for several seconds to actually think about she wanted to say then just blurting out anything. She finally responded under Carly's scrutiny, "Look, I told him I was sorry."

An incredulous expression formed on her face as she answered with a snark, "Oh, you're sorry and that is supposed to make everything better? Do you not get how bad that is? Let's just put aside the fact that it would have guaranteed that we would have gotten into the same college and focus on the fact that you messed him up going to _any_ college he wanted to go and the camp he dreamed about going to." She sucked in a quick breath and started again before the blonde could get in a word edgewise, "You wouldn't be blowing it off if he had ruined your chances to go to your culinary school. You'd be furious and we'd be pulling you off the poor, dumb slum that did it to you."

The blonde's brow furled as if the idea of going to culinary school was an entirely alien concept. She brushed it aside and retorted, "You didn't see it as a big deal. You knew what I did and kept it a secret for weeks until you wanted to break us up then got all regretful. You're the one who convinced him to get over it and forgive me. You're the one that said this is just the way I was and that he should put up with it because I could be a lot of fun to be around. _You didn't care that I janked him over!_"

Carly clenched her jaw tight while taking several deep breaths through her nose as she felt that Shay rage mixed in with her Dorfman sass.

Sam took a slight step back as she saw the fury in Carly's eyes and swallowed nervously as she was seeing a whole new level of anger in the brunette's eyes.

Carly took on last deep breath then snapped out, "I care because _I love him_ and your Carly should too but it's obvious to me now that your Carly is nothing but a heartless bitch!"

Sam blinked in response to the statement while Freddie stood there in silence. Freddie was finally able to whisper out with clear disapproval in his voice as he gently placed his hand on her forearm, "Carls… that's _really_ uncalled for."

She snapped her head around and looked Freddie dead in the eye and whispered out in anger, "_Why?_ She does nothing while Sam here makes you miserable. She took her side when she ruined your plans. She's the one that said she didn't care. You were willing to _die for me_, but… I… she…" The proper terms were becoming a jumble in her head and felt a shortness of breath as she felt that she may be losing grip with reality itself with being bombarded with all the differences between them and the faint possibility of having an asthma attack. She took a deep breath to try to calm herself and rally her thoughts then pointed straight at Sam and pouring all her righteous indignation into her voice, "Can't tell her no? This is what I would have become without mom? This is what Sam would have turned out without mom? Would I have cared so little for my best friend that I'd just let her do that to you? Your Carly is pretty janked up and I'm finally understanding why this happened: so my mom could straighten out_ your_ screwed up Carly."

Freddie bit his tongue and frowned as he gave the girl he had moments go made out for some reason he hadn't had the chance to contemplate on the reason why a disapproving expression. He bit back his anger for how she was describing his Carly and instead responded with a far calmer voice than he really wanted to use, "That's pretty presumptuous of you."

She was not put off by the expression for even she and her Freddie got into arguments during their friendship and had one or two after they started dating. She gave him the same challenging tone as she did with her Freddie when they were both being stubborn as she asked, "You have a better explanation?"

Sam rolled her eyes as she apparently had enough of whatever was going on with Carly and decided to catch her pale friend by the arm. "We are taking you to see a doc—"

Carly felt the tug on her arm and instinctively reared her right arm back then swung wide for her right fist to collide with Sam's left eye socket.

"AWW!" Sam stumbled to the side before she was able to right herself.

Carly bared her teeth as she held up her fists and shouted, "You want to try that again?"

Sam looked at her in complete shock as she held the side of her face.

The feisty brunette growled out, "What? No one has ever hit you back?"

The blonde growled and stood up straight while dropping her hand. She spat out in disgust, "No one has been stupid enough to."

"Or maybe they are too afraid to, but _I'm not_."

The dirty blonde took a step forward to close the distance between the pair and whispered, "Fine Carls, if you want to play this game of not being our Carly then I'm not afraid to hurt you to snap you out of it."

Carly took a step and looked Sam right in the eyes and answered her challenge, "I'm a Shay and a Dorfman; give me your best shot."

The shorter teenager actually paused for a moment in seeing that Carly wasn't the least bit afraid of her or willing to back down even though it was the first time she had been willing to play the violence card on her. She took in a sharp breath as she realized the look in her eyes showed that at some level she was actually hoping that Sam would try something.

Freddie slid between the girls with his hands up in front of Sam. He spoke to both, but looked to Sam, "Enough. You two are not going to fight."

The blonde gritted her teeth and snapped, "Get out of my way before I—"

Carly pushed against Freddie's back as she called out, "You hit him and I swear I'll rip your hair out!"

Sam looked past Freddie's shoulder to look at the cold stare Carly was directing at her. The blonde snapped around to head out of the room and growled out, "I'm going to go downstairs and get me some ice."

Freddie turned to look at Carly while wearing a surprised expression that Sam would back down so readily. She looked back with a strange mixed expression of sadness and annoyance on her face and commented, "Just like my mom said: 'Only way to deal with a bully is to stand up to them and give them a bloody nose.'" She walked past Freddie without a second thought to head out of the room to follow her friend's counterpart and shouted, "We're not done!"

* * *

Author's Note: Okay, that was interesting writing Carly defending Freddie from… ah Carly? She was pretty harsh on the Carly we all know and love (she kind of told us why if you look), but let me pose a question to think about until the next chapter: 'Is Canon Carly the only Carly that is meant to learn a valuable life lesson?' Also, you're also wondering and scratching your head in why in the world would she start making out with Freddie and crying while she's doing it… spoilers, so I can't answer that _yet_. Thanks for reading.


	9. Chapter 9

Author's Note: Thank you all for reading and reviewing. I appreciate that very much and hope you've enjoyed the story so far and this upcoming chapter. Now let me respond to your reviews before we get started:

PD31: I'll let the story explain why Carly made-out with Freddie, but I wouldn't disagree with that interpretation. :P

Daytrigg: I'm glad you like the twists. I'm trying to balance my time so I can get back to iWould Have Pounded Him Silly. I'm going over my notes for the story and past chapters to remind me where I'm going with it.

Boris Yeltsin: Everyone has the opportunity to learn.

CCougar427098: I haven't been too happy with Dan prioritizing plot at the sacrifice of character. There's a quote about that I have on my profile page.

Guest: Carly had Freddie just forgive Sam on the spot in the show because the plot demanded that he do it regardless of how badly it made ALL the characters look so Dan could complete the Seddie Arc in iLove You. The only other in-universe explanation you can give is that Carly simply loves Sam far more than she cares about Freddie and it has become a major weakness in the show.

I'mWritingBecauseOfCarlyShay: I wouldn't say they have hostility issues just that they are outraged that things had deteriorated so badly in the other's world. Unfortunately in life, sometimes the only way to deal with violence is to respond in kind.

Skittymon: Of course it was cold on AU Carly's part to be so casual about talking about her mother that was her point. She's emotionally lashing out and trying to hurt the people she sees as hurting Freddie even if he's not 'her' Freddie. If she could meet Canon Carly, she'd emotionally go for her throat too. She's thinking with her heart, not her head.

Subject87: It would be nice to see the real Carly and Sam have it out on the show instead of the cop-out iQuit iCarly turned out with Carly just brushing her problems with Sam under the rug just because they had a near death experience together.

DCUO Statellizer: Alternative Universes can be fun and pay off emotionally as one can explore the ever enduring 'What if?' and actually give you better insight on the characters in the canon world.

Special Guest Appearance by Tina Fey as Taylor Shay

Special Guest Voice Appearance by Joe Flanigan as Colonel Steven Shay

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Chapter 9

Shay Apartment  
Seattle, WA

Carly trotted down the stairs and reached the bottom floor just in time to see Sam reach the refrigerator. The dirty blonde reached for the freezer door handle to pull it open and reached in with her other hand in a swift motion to pull something out. She brought a bag of frozen peas to left eye socket and turned wearing a frown to look at the irate brunette while closing the door behind her.

The brunette stopped just at the threshold between the living room and the kitchen. "We're not done yet."

The shorter web-hostess growled out, "You want to hit me again?"

Carly crossed her arms and huffed out, "Only if I have to, but I'd rather talk some sense into you if it's possible."

Sam dropped her hand from the side of her face while still gripping the bag of peas then asked indignantly, "Is this some elaborate new form of intervention? You've tried this before and _it didn't work_."

She blinked being caught off guard with that little bit of information. In an instant, her mind shifted from indignation at the blonde to utter confusion. _Had the Carly of this world actually attempted to do something to stop Sam? _She didn't get time to dwell on the question as the stare coming from Sam told her that she was waiting for an answer. She rallied her indignation as to not show her any weakness and snorted out, "Call it whatever you want, but I'm not joking with you and what you do to Freddie isn't a joke."

Sam frowned as she thought over Carly's words and tried to assess the girl in front of her. She nodded her head from side to side while she studied the identical looking girl to Carly as a predator studied its prey before pouncing.

Carly heard the caution in the slightly shorter girl's voice as she asked, "So you're telling me you're really not our Carly?"

A stern expression formed on her pale face as she answered unequivocally, "No I'm not."

Sam smirked and Carly saw a glint in the other girl's eyes that she couldn't identify. She whispered out with a false sense of innocence, "Okay, if that nutty idea is true then I need to make me a butter sock."

Her brow furled at trying to understand what she meant by a 'butter sock'. "What's a butter sock?"

Sam grinned as she narrowed her gaze on the brunette.

Carly frowned in return realizing that from the look Sam was directing at her, she was about to get into a fight. Unlike others however, she wasn't afraid.

"No!"

The pair turned to see Freddie at the foot of the stairs with a determined expression on his face. He quickly walked up to stand beside the alternate Carly and looked Sam straight in the eyes and pointed at her with his right pointer finger. "You're not hitting her with a butter sock."

Sam snorted out, "Oh I'm not?"

Freddie dropped his hand and answered sternly, "No you are not."

She sarcastically asked, "Why not?"

The brown eyed teenager sidestepped to place between the girls and looked Sam straight in the eyes.

Carly spared a glance towards to see the look in Freddie's eyes and saw something that she had seen for a long time in her Freddie's eyes.

Freddie finally answered with a cold tone, "Because I'm telling you no."

Sam turned her head slightly to angrily eye the taller teenager.

Spencer exited his bedroom as he heard the commotion of them coming down the stares and some of their conversation from the living room and kitchen. His mouth dropped open as he looked between the teenagers looking like they were about to square off then saw the bruise starting to form on the side of Sam's face, "What happened?"

Carly turned and slightly frowned as she sarcastically answered, "I hit her."

He blinked as he asked with a disbelieving tone, "Why?"

She snapped back, "Because she put her hands on me to try to drag me to see a doctor and… she deserved it."

Spencer rolled his eyes as he looked up at the ceiling. He looked down at the brunette and retorted with a tired voice, "You just can't hit her."

Carly's mouth dropped open while looking at the lanky artist. She quickly shut her mouth and took a deep breath through her nose then snapped back, "But she can hit Freddie?"

The young artist shut his mouth and pulled his head back and slightly leaned away.

The look in her brother's eyes told her in an instant that he knew about Sam's behavior. He was just as lousy at lying and deceiving as their mother. She turned and walked over to her older sibling. "Yeah, I found out about that. I found out that she did it while they were dating."

She looked over her shoulder and asked with an accusatorily tone to the dirty blonde, "Why on Earth would you do that?"

She shouted back, "He annoys me—"

"You're supposed to love him! Being annoyed with one another comes with the territory. I fake being interested in half the cukey stuff he does that actually drives me nuts and he deals with it when I go all crazy about a boy band or wanting to spend the day shopping and going to Build-A-Bra, but we put up with it because we love each other. You don't hit them for it. You are actually _friends_, not…" She motioned a hand between the pair and finished with a mixture of disbelief and disdain at the whole situation, "…whatever you two are."

Freddie curiously asked, "How did that happen?"

"Mom put her foot down to save her before she could turn into—" She stopped to motion a hand at Sam then finished, "This."

Shay Apartment  
Seattle, WA  
Early October 2007

Carly had her arms crossed nervously over her chest as she stood off to the side in the kitchen while Sam sat in the kitchen chair wearing a deep frown with dried, caked blood around her nostrils and her upper lip. Taylor sat across from her with a damped washcloth in one hand and gently holding Sam by her chin. The older artist whispered, "It's not as much fun when someone fights back is it?"

The tween rolled her eyes as Taylor wiped some blood off the top of Sam's lip. She snorted out softy (and brought a hint of pain through her nose), "Who would have thought the little deweb would hit me?"

The older brunette dipped the end of the washcloth in the bowl of water as she casually answered, "I told him to hit you."

The curly haired blonde blinked as she looked at the older artist. "What?"

Taylor held her chin and finished wiping the dry blood from the tween's nose. She laid the moist rag on the table then took Sam's hands into her own. She looked to the girl barely into her teens with a sad and regretful expression. She whispered softly in a slow and deliberate tone as if speaking the words physically hurt, "Sweetheart, I've asked and told you to stop, _repeatedly_ from harassing and bullying Freddie and other children at school. You've already broken Gibby's thumbs once. I've grounded you. I have taken Fatcakes and desserts away from you. I've lost count how many times I have given you detention with Briggs and that's on top of whatever Ted gives you. I've done everything short of not allowing you into the apartment and being Carly's friend and nothing works…" She sniffled at she looked like she was about to cry, "So the only thing left is to tell one of your victims to stand up to the bully and give you a bloody nose to get you to stop."

She looked down and shook her head. "Samantha, I don't want anything to happen to you, but something is going to happen if you keep this up. You can only do so much wrong before it catches up with you… and it always catches up with you."

Sam kept her mouth shut for a few seconds as she put up an impassive expression with her eyes. She finally whispered out, "You're not my mother."

Taylor could hear Spencer behind her on the other side of the kitchen counter take in a sharp breath, but she ignored it as she looked the blonde straight into the eyes. She whispered softly and kindly as Sam was use to hearing her voice, but this time she heard a firm, inarguable quality, "You've know better than that since you were eight years old."

Sam looked down as she was unable to look her friend's mother in the eyes.

Mrs. Shay wrapped her arms around the sitting teenager and rested her chin on the girl's right shoulder. She whispered something into the tween's ear that Carly couldn't hear from her vantage point, but whatever was said, Sam sucked in a deep breath then bowed her head to cover her eyes with the older artist's shoulder and reached up to hug Taylor back.

The school teacher rocked with the girl for about a minute or so the pulled away to smile and look into her blue eyes. "Everything is going to be okay now. You'll see."

The apartment door flew open and an irate Mrs. Benson came storming inside. "Taylor!"

The older artist closed her eyes and blew out a soft breath out of her nose then stood up from the tween to turn around to walk to the living room to face the upset nurse. The pair stopped about a yard apart from one another in the center of the living room.

Spencer, Carly and Sam quietly stood off to the side near the living room side of the kitchen counter to watch with curiosity about the confrontation they knew was about to happen.

The bandana wearing artist calmly asked, "I thought Steven had the discussion about you just barging into our home whenever you pleased?"

Mrs. Benson ignored her question and shouted, "You told my son to hit Sam!"

Taylor calmly replied, "I taught him to stand up for himself. Obviously something you refused to do."

Marissa raised a hand pointed at Taylor's face as she retorted angrily, "Don't you dare question my parenting skills!"

"Someone has to. All your skills are teaching him is to accept that people will mistreat him and that is what he should expect for the rest of his life. That's exactly what's going to happen to him if he won't stand up for himself and it isn't right. He can't depend on others to do it for him."

"So you told him to hit her? You think him hitting someone will solve his problems?"

She quietly answered, "Only when ever _other_ solution has _failed_ and they are willing to put their hands on him _first_. There are times where talking simply doesn't work." She absently looked off to the side and reached up and gently rubbed her fingertips up and down her left cheek. She continued a moment later as she dropped her hand away from the side of her face, "And what else could have been done? The only other thing I had left was to spank her, which I won't do. Besides she's too old and not _legally_ my child. I can't spank her."

"You spanked your children?"

Taylor answered with an even tone, "He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes."

Spencer laughed out, "Actually she left that to dad… on me at least; I don't think Carly was ever spanked, but mom spanked me at fourteen…" He trailed off when he saw Taylor turned to look at him with a frown.

"You dropped garlic powder in their eyes and they had to go to the emergency room to get their eyes flushed out. You could have damaged their eyesight; I think that called for spanking you."

Spencer bowed his head as to not to argue with the shorter artist.

The nurse frowned at her and responded with a tone that showed she was just brushing off what the artist had to say, "What do you know? You're a child trying to raise children. You can't take care of yourself. Your grown son has to live with you."

Carly glanced up to her older brother as he immediately put on a frown from the insult directed at their mother.

The bandana wearing teacher seemed to brush it off and reply, "Maybe so, but I'm still right."

"Are you? What if I'm raising him a pacifist?"

"That's not pacifism that's just rolling over and dying. Why are you determined to make your son miserable?"

"I'm trying to protect him!"

She softly shook her head and gave her a sympathetic expression. "As much as you'd like to, you can't protect him from _life_; it happens and you just have to deal with it the best you can."

Mrs. Benson remained silent as Taylor had just told her the way she looked at the world was wrong and struggled to form a response. She finally spoke up with her anger still lacing her voice, "You're not to give my son any more advice. Do you understand?"

"If he needs my help then I will help and you don't frighten me Marissa." Taylor softly shook her head. "Not after what I have been through. I've stared the Angel of Death straight in the eyes and do you know what happened?"

The redheaded brunette anger ebbed away to slight worry. "What?"

"He blinked, so you don't frighten me."

The Shay children looked uncomfortable by their mother's confession about what she had saw during those dark times and glanced to one another for the briefest of seconds.

Marissa took in a sharp breath through her nose then snapped, "Fine, I'll tell Principal Franklin that you told a student to hit another. How long do you think you'll keep your job?"

Carly glanced to Spencer and the younger artist looked outraged from the threat directed at his mother. She briefly wondered if he was about to just throw the overprotective mother out of apartment.

Taylor frowned and took a step forward. "Yes I am a teacher… I'm legally obligated to report any suspected child neglect or abuse that I see and I've seen plenty in regards to Freddie."

Marissa dropped her mouth open then shouted with outrage, "How dare you accuse me of such a thing? How can you threaten me like that?"

Taylor cracked a soft smile and whispered with a surprisingly lack sense of innocence, "You just threatened my job and as Steven would say 'I'm explaining the situation to you'."

Marissa glanced to Sam then back to Taylor to challenge, "Have you done that with her mother?"

Carly saw from the corner of her eye Sam's uneasiness of talking about her mother in a serious manner instead of the jokes she would make about the Puckett mother.

The Liz Lemon look-alike remained silent for a few moments in apparent contemplation on what she was going to say, but finally responded, "I have reported Pamela, _repeatedly_. She just…" She glanced to Sam for an instant then back to Marissa to finish, "You know Pamela's affects on males, so… nothing happens. I'd outright adopt Sam if I could, but the situation is what it is and I deal with it the best I can."

Mrs. Benson glanced over to the teenagers and realized why she was speaking in code. She nodded along as it she could agree with the artist that the topic should not be openly discussed in front of Sam. It was one thing for the thirteen year old to suspect her mother's activities with the various men her mother would see (as Taylor was the one that really explained the 'birds and the bees' to Sam), but an entirely different thing to force Sam to face it openly and be on the forefront of her mind.

"Don't escalate with me Marissa. I can let things go and forgive you…" She regretfully shook her head. "…but Steven won't."

Marissa bit her tongue and started down the artist for moments that stretched out into a minute. She finally just turned and exited the apartment as quickly as she had entered it and slammed the door behind her.

Taylor shook her head then turned to look back to Sam. She walked over to young blonde and whispered, "Now where were we? Yes… are you going to stop picking on Freddie? Are you going to stop picking on everyone else?"

She swallowed down her nervousness as she met the soft brown eyes then nodded. "Yes ma'am… it just might be a little hard not to insult him."

The glasses wearing teacher cracked a smile. "Well… Rome wasn't built in a day."

Shay Apartment  
Present  
Canon World

Sam took several deep breaths as she evidently looked disturbed to hear such a vivid story involving Mrs. Shay coming from the identical looking girl to her Carly. The brunette figured that this Sam might feel a little shocked at knowing how much school teacher cared about her and even so far as wanting to adopt her.

Spencer had taken a seat in one of the red stools in front of the kitchen counter during the course of Carly's story. He appeared just as much a lost of words as the rest. However, before he could figure anything out to say, the phone rang from behind the pillar of that supported the side of the kitchen counter.

Spencer turned in his seat to reach around for the wall phone, but maintained eye contact with Carly as he picked up the receiver. He blinked several times before questioning, "Dad?" He listened for a moment then continued, "No… I'm just surprised to hear from you." He listened for a few more moments then replied, "You are? That's great."

He put his hand over the receiver and revealed, "Dad's coming home for his birthday." Colonel Shay apparently had more to say as Spencer turned his focus on the phone. Spencer glance back at Carly as he continued listening to the Colonel then answered with a strained tone, "Yeah… she's right here, but…" Spencer grinned goofily as he commented through the phone, "Carly's not feeling well this morning, so I… I'll pass along anything you want to tell her this afternoon."

Carly frowned deeply at seeing her brother's counterpart wasn't going to let her speak with this world's version of her father. However, she wasn't going to put up with it.

"Dad!" she shouted in the hopes that he would hear her despite the phone pressed to the side of Spencer's face. She was thinking about rushing him to take the phone back, but he sighed deeply as he listened to his father. He pulled the phone from his ear and covered the receiver. His expression told her that he didn't really want to give her the phone, but she figured that he couldn't successfully argue against his father any better than her own brother. "He wants to speak to you again,"

The irritation Spencer was feeling was quite evident to Carly's eyes, but she didn't hesitate to snatch the phone back. She quickly brought it to her ear and answered, "Hey."

Her father was evidently concerned about her with the tone of voice he was using as he asked, "Is everything okay? Spencer said you're not feeling well?"

"No, everything was fine, I just had a rough morning, but I've bounced back and…"

"What?"

She shrugged as shoulder that he obviously couldn't see and gave him a little white lie, "I just did a lot of thinking while I was away at granddad's."

She heard him softly chuckle on the other end of the line, "A change in scenery can do that to you."

"Yeah…" she hesitantly responded then continued, "Are you happy dad?"

There was a short pause before the Colonel answered, "Ah… sure snug bug. I'm coming home to see you."

"No I mean…"

Spencer was giving her a confused expression.

Carly licked her lips then just went with her feelings, "Are you seeing anyone?" She waited and thought for the moment that they had lost the connection as she couldn't even hear him breathing on the other end of the line.

"No, of course not," he responded with a strange mixture of offense and worry.

She swallowed nervously then responded, "Maybe you should."

"Pardon?" he asked actually being caught off even further by whom he thought was his daughter's words.

"Mom would want you to be happy. I know she would. She wouldn't want you to be alone."

Spencer blinked along with the other two teenagers as they heard the advice she was giving to her father's counterpart. The lanky artist looked like he was ready to make a move to take the phone from her, but she twisted away to prevent him from snatching the phone in any other way that wouldn't result in a struggle that she knew her father would hear on the other end of the line then walked around the counter to get something between her and Spencer.

"Sweetie… are you really telling me that I should… find someone else? As in romantically?"

"Yes, that is exactly what I'm telling you. I'm telling you that it's alright to be happy and find someone so you won't be alone. Mom would want you to do that."

"Where is this coming from? Did your granddad bring this up with y—"

She quickly cut him off as her mind instantly worked out where he was coming from with his question, "This has nothing to do with him never approving of you marrying mom. I just want you to be happy and so would she. It is not a betrayal of mom to be with someone else." She wasn't sure if his Carly knew about her granddad not approving dad to marry mom, but it was too late now to worry about such a thing.

She waited patiently as he finally spoke again, "I have to get going sweetie, but I'll see you soon and… I'll think about what you've said."

The brunette whispered softly, "Okay, dad; I love you dad."

"I love you too. Give Spencer my love."

"I will… bye."

"Bye."

She waited to hear the phone disconnect on his end then she turned and handed the phone to Spencer.

He grudgingly took the phone as he clenched his jaw and blew out a breath through his nose. Carly could see that her brother's counterpart was getting angry from the same tell-tale signs. He snapped out, "How could you tell him that?"

The brunette retorted with an equally stern expression, "Someone had to tell him! You think mom would want him to be miserable? What is with your thinking—"

Spencer interrupted with a shout, "My thinking? It's so janking easy to judge us isn't?"

Carly wanted to snap back an answer, any answer but she could see that he wasn't finished.

She was right as he pointed at her and stated, "You didn't have to live the last ten years without mom. You didn't have to watch dad fool the world into thinking that he was handling it while having to fight after nine-eleven, but knowing he was falling apart inside without her and try to hold everything else together." He took a step forward and wore a deep frown. "You didn't have to watch your mother waste away then had to bury her. I did. I had to watch it all and I did my best with my baby sister and I may have not been up to _your_ standards, but I love my sister and I've tried to do best by everyone." He looked down at his feet and shook his head. He mumbled out, "I guess it is easy judging and lecturing us from Heaven if you think this is Hell."

Carly took a deep breath while looking into Spencer's angry, yet sorrow filled eyes. She refrained from commenting on the fact that it looked like he finally accepted the fact that he wasn't his Carly. She let out a slow breath and met her brother's gaze. Her voice was shaky as his words did sting her soul in not really knowing all the things he and the other Carly must have gone through, but she pressed on, "No… I didn't have to live without mom, but you make my case for me. Losing mom would break him, but he shouldn't have to stay broken. Your mom wouldn't want that and don't you dare tell me she would and I don't need to be from Heaven to know that you sitting on your hands while he's used as a punching bag is wrong. You're a grown man for God sakes Spencer. Don't try to justify not doing the right thing to me."

"It wasn't my business… that's Mrs. Benson's job—"

"So you realize what she does to him is wrong?" She looked at him sadly as she asked, "Is that what you tell yourself so you can sleep at night? Is that what Carly tells herself? It's someone else's problem?"

Spencer coldly stared at the teenager.

Carly shook her head and looked down at the floor. She mumbled out, "I can't deal with this anymore. I just got to go." She turned and headed out the door.

Freddie shouted after her as she pulled open the door, "Carly!"

She shouted back as she crossed the threshold into the hallway, "I'll be back!"

Freddie grabbed the door before it finished closing then slipped through to catch up with the retreating brunette.


	10. Chapter 10

Author's Note: Hey everyone. Sorry for the lateness of this chapter.

Boris Yeltsin: It is probably a typo and I meant 'dirty blonde' as in Sam's hair color.

MixItUp: I'm glad you liked the update. AU Carly is unique, I will give her that. She holds on to speaking her mind and being the 'Little-Sass'.

Subject87: It is a learning experience for all of them as the end of the last story showed a change in Freddie.

DCUO Statellizer: I'm glad it was so good that you are speechless. The term 'Tween' is for an age group of very young teens and just before the teen years. There is not a set age or grade level I believe.

Unknown: I believe personally believe that AU Carly means well while being confrontational with the rest of the characters. I think she will better explain her reasoning in this chapter.

On with the story.

* * *

Chapter 10

Freddie made a mad dash to catch up with the brunette making her way to the elevator at the end of the hallway. He was able to catch up and place himself in front of her just as she made it to the elevator. He slightly shook his head and breathlessly asked, "Where are you going?"

She eyed him with an irritated look and snapped at the concerned teenager, "I don't know! Just out of here for a few minutes. I can't take it anymore of this screwed up world!"

Freddie snorted out a breath presumably from the insult of her describing his world and remained blocking her path in front of the elevator. Carly took several calming breaths and looked at him giving her a concerned yet slightly helpless expression. He stated with a patient voice, "You just can't take off."

The alternate Carly's brow furled and asked with an offended tone that was eerily similar to how Jade would respond, "Oh? I'm your prisoner?"

His shoulders slumped and sighed loudly, "No, you swapped with our Carly in the exact same place. You go take off and we don't know where you are and you swap back, we won't have a clue where she'll end up when it happens."

She slightly dipped her head down to her right as she maintained eye contact with the tech producer. "So that is your priority? Make sure your Carly's alright?"

Freddie snapped in return, "And your mom, Spencer and the rest wouldn't have the same concern with our Carly running around in your universe? You and my Carly have to be linked."

She folded her arms over her chest and looked away as she couldn't argue with his point.

He took a quick breath then slowly let it out. He continued with what he hoped was a reasonable voice, "I'm not saying I don't care about you, I'm saying I care about both of you: trying to get my Carly back while you…" He motioned a hand towards her and finished, "…look at yourself: you're furious and just storming off and that is _never_ a good thing."

She shook her head for a moment then snapped back, "I have every right to be furious! You are an emotional and physical punching bag and my dad has gone the last ten years of being alone and no one wants to take responsibility for their actions! Everyone just wants to make excuses for everything! I will not apologize for getting upset that you are being hurt and no one cares. I will not apologize for loving you."

Freddie shut his mouth tight for a moment. It was hard to be upset with her when the reason for her hostility towards everything and everybody over the last twenty minutes or so was because she was upset for him. It was near virgin territory of having someone defend and try to protect him with such ferocity.

He took another deep breath to try to clear his mind and think rationally whether than on pure emotion. He glanced around to see if anyone had heard the alternate Carly's outburst, but fortunately the L shaped intersection of the hallway was clear. He turned his attention back on the indignant filled teenager and started, "Okay, you want to get away from—" He motioned his hand over her shoulder and towards the apartment down the hallway. "—that then I know the place where you can just calm down and relax."

Carly raised an eyebrow intrigued with what he could possibly suggest.

Groovy Smoothie  
Seattle, WA  
Saturday, August 20, 2011

Freddie pushed open the door to the establishment with Carly cautiously following behind him. He looked over his shoulder and suggested when they fully stepped inside, "Why don't you get a table while I get our usuals?"

He started his way towards the counter without waiting for an answer, but she gently grasped his wrist to stop him. He slightly turned to face her and gave her a curious expression.

She quickly answered, "I left my jacket in the apartment with my wallet. I don't have any money on me."

He smiled to her then leaned over and whispered with a light tone, "You really wouldn't be spending your money anyway, but Carly's, so I got this."

She gave a quick role of her eyes and answered, "Point to you." She let go of his wrist then he headed to the counter while she picked one of the small circular tables meant for two. The brunette rested her forearms on the small circular table as she glanced around at the other patrons of the establishment. Most were teenagers from Ridgeway and nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary with today just being a typical Saturday approaching early lunch time. She did briefly wonder how everyone had adjusted to suddenly going to a year round school.

She tried to let her mind settle as she wondered how all the other teenagers might be different than they were in her world. Her thoughts didn't wonder too far as Freddie came back and sat a smoothie in front of the her then had a seat on the other side of the table.

The brunette took a quick sip from what turned out to be a strawberry flavored smoothie then whispered out, "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

The pair sat in silence lost in their respective thoughts about the situation the teenagers found themselves in as they sipped on their drinks.

Carly spoke up with a soft voice without meeting his eyes, "You never met my mom, did you?"

He sat up straighter in his seat as he was apparently caught off guard by the question. He took a soft breath and sadly shook his head. "No… I never had the pleasure. I don't really know the story about her or your dad other than you… she misses him. Carly's doesn't talk about her at all."

She gave a sad smile in response. She didn't know how eager she would want to talk about her mother either if she lost her now, least long at seven years old. She looked down to the table and softly started, "I can't speak for your Carly, but… my mother is my rock. She's been called a dreamer and a child and some people think she can barely take care of herself or that Spencer really has to take care of both of us, but they really don't understand. I can always count on her through the ups and downs and set me right."

She took a sip from her straw and continued, "She's also my inspiration… in… countless ways even in regards with you… him, my Freddie."

"How? If I may ask?"

She broke into a surprise grin as she answered with a renewed sense of joy after the stress so far from the day, "My parents are absolutely in love with one another even after thirty one years being together. It doesn't matter how many deployments or how long they are separated or how many hardships they've gone through their love has never wavered. It gives me… us such hope when everyone else's relationships fall apart." She didn't mean to take a swipe at the fact that his parents were separated, but it was a point that she needed to make about her and her Freddie's relationship.

She shook her head then took a quick sip from her straw. She maintained her warm smile on her face as she started, "They were high school sweethearts… they even got married halfway through their senior year." She let out a soft laugh, "She was pregnant with Spencer during their Senior Prom and graduation… but I'm getting ahead of myself."

She took another quick sip of her smoothie then continued, "They met near the end of their junior year of high school. This bully was picking on her and dad ah… dealt with him. After that they knew they were as different as can be. Dad's the serious, down to Earth one and mom is the… abstract one? She sees things that others can't. I take after dad and Spencer takes after mom."

He leaned forward and whispered to try to lessen the chance that he would be overheard by the other patrons, "Does that inspiration include you and your Freddie planning to get married soon?"

She broke into a smirk. "We don't need to… 'take our time in a hurry' as my parents."

Freddie's brow slightly furled as he asked curiously, "I don't understand."

She slightly lifted her chin as she eyed him. "The Leukemia? The bogeyman that haunts my family? Mom didn't want to waste any time when she already knew that she loved my father and he agreed. I don't know what either would do without the other. I don't know how your Carly's dad gets through it."

The tech producer took a slow breath. He asked hesitantly, "You're not concerned?"

Carly glanced away for a moment seeing the other Ridgeway teenagers busy with their respective conversations and just living their lives in the moment. She looked back to Freddie calmly answered, "If it happens to me… mom beat it twice, I can beat it. We're not going to rush to enjoy life, just… be for the moment, just like everyone else here."

Freddie looked down to the table and Carly instantly saw that he was delving deep in thought.

She leaned her head forward and asked with worry filling her voice, "What?"

He cautiously looked up and whispered, "Carly's mom didn't beat it and well…"

She sucked in a breath as she recalled the feeling that he was only mildly feeling for the moment. She reached over and clasped her hand over his free hand resting on the table, not caring who saw or if people would question such a gesture from her. He glanced down to her hand then back to her with a surprised expression. The web-hostess looked Freddie straight in the eyes and whispered with a fearful tone, "I wouldn't know how I would be without you…"

St. Agony's Medical Center  
AU Seattle, WA  
11:22 PM, Mid-January 2010

Carly laid her cheek on her right forearm as she rested her head on the side of the hospital next to Freddie's right hip. She watched with a worried expression at her tech producer sleeping peacefully with the help of some pain medication through his IV drip. Her left hand gently wrapped over his cast covered right hand with her thumb occasionally brushing over the top of his thumb.

She didn't care about how long she had been by his side. She didn't care how tired she felt or the near constant growls of her stomach demanding it be fed. She would just rest her head and be by his side until he woke up. It was the least he could do for pushing her out of the way of the taco truck that would have ran right over her if not for him.

The brunette felt a soft nudge on her shoulder then heard the soft voice of her mother, "My shift Carly."

"I just want to stay a little longer," she mumbled through a tired breath.

Taylor walked around her daughter's left side and gently kissed her on her forehead then whispered, "I know Shays are good at standing vigil, but you have to pace yourself. You have to eat something and get some sleep."

Carly sat up and looked to her mother with tired and hurt expression as she tried to blink back to tears she could feel ready to fall. "I can't leave his side, he…"

She wrapped her right arm over Carly's shoulders and whispered, "I know sweetheart, but he wouldn't want you to run yourself down. I know from personal experience being the one in the bed."

She took a sharp breath then slowly let it out as she looked to her mother's comforting eyes and warm smile.

A horsed whispered called out, "Did anyone get the license plate of that truck? I want a taco."

Mother and daughter turned to see Freddie blink and attempt to clear his throat.

Carly was immediately on her feet out of the chair and leaning over the bedridden teenager. She sniffled and let a smile form on her face as she tried to meet his eyes, but he couldn't apparently focus on anything at the moment as they darted around trying to take in the barely lit room. She paid that no mined as she whispered out softly, "Hey."

Freddie slightly turned his head and finally focused on Carly, but immediately put on worried expression and whispered out, "Oh chizz… I'm dead."

She reached and cupped his left cheek to help him look at her. She desperately corrected him with a sharp tone, "You're not dead."

"Then why am I looking at an angel? Where are your wings… where are you hiding the wings?"

The brunette sucked in a sharp breath and blinked as she felt more tears start flowing down her cheeks. "No Freddie, it's me, Carly. You're still here with us."

He grinned as he looked at her, but he could tell he was still having trouble focusing completely on her. He started laughing softly, "My beautiful brown eye girl… who's getting curvier everyday." He tried to whistle but failed miserably then commented, "I should know… my arms fit right around you _perfectly_. I want another dance."

Carly turned to look at her mother with a perplexed expression. The Shay Matriarch pursed her lips and looked to her as if she had been caught doing something wrong, but then motioned a hand to the morphine drip on Freddie's left side. "He's saying any stray thought that comes to mind and probably doesn't know what he's saying."

As if on cue, Freddie started badly singing, "I can be fragile… you were meant for me!"

The brunette turned to see Freddie closing his eyes and start humming the song that played at their impromptu dance in the Groovy Smoothie about three months ago. She took a calming breath as she realized that he was going to be okay. She turned to her to her left and slid into bed with him between his side and cast covered lower arm and hand. He apparently realized she was there and wrapped his arm around her as she hugged him the best she could as he remained laying in the bed and the IV in his left arm.

He lifted his left arm and wrapped it around her lower back and swayed slightly back and forth. He grinned as he commented, "We're dancing again."

She whispered into his ear, "Yeah, we're dancing." She gave him a soft kiss on his cheek then snuggle her head under his chin as she did when they danced. She closed her eyes and just held on to him for the rest of the night.

Groovy Smoothie  
Canon Present

Carly cupped her drink in her hand as she stared at the table, but with a hint of a smile on her face from the bittersweet memory.

Freddie let out a slow breath then whispered out, "Maybe you can be a little more understanding?"

Carly glanced up to meet his brown eyes with a hesitant look in her eyes. "Pardon?"

"Spencer's right… it is easy to judge us when you didn't have to live through that lost and without that light in your life. What you just described is just one of many things that played out very differently here than where you're from without her… and I think we all did the best we could."

The web-hostess pushed her drink to the side and leaned forward and resting her forearms against the table as she looked him straight in the eyes. She whispered out in a tone daring him to challenge her, "Just like my Freddie… loyal to a fault, and maybe it's just Shay stubbornness, but answer me this: if it was Griffin smacking me around when we were together, would you have been willing to listen to anyone tell you that you should be more understanding and forgiving of him and all the people that knew yet did nothing to try and stop it?"

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you liked this chapter with a little more insight as to AU Carly's hostility towards some of the main characters. It is explanation, not justification and I would not want to persuade any of you my dear readers to a particular interpretation for any of the characters. I'm going to try to get the next update by Friday. Later.


	11. Chapter 11

Author's Note: Hello my dear readers. Happy Creddie Friday. Wow, if you haven't heard the news, look up the breaking news about Jennette McCurdy's new show. It will shock you, it certainly did me. Thanks again for all the reviews and the support in reading.

Boris Yeltson: Thanks.

Subject87: I think she had a point to a certain extent, but it is up to you as a reader as to how much of one she has.

DCUO Statellizer: Well aren't you creative for a Freddie response? :P About iAlready Have a Family, that is another story along with iWould Have Pounded Silly that I am going to slowly get back onto finishing as I'm wrapping this story up.

BushwellFanNYC: Yes, I am aware that some may think this piece has been attacking Canon Carly, but I don't have to remind you that this is a _parallel_ story to the first one and readers of the first story know how Canon Carly turns out: she grew as a person and got the guy in the end. These stories are similar in theme to iChristmas and they've made jokes about 'It's a Wonderful Life' in that someone is learning a life lesson and growing as a person. Self-reflection is sometimes the hardest journey to make.

MixItUp: Thanks and it is Creddie Friday.

CCougar427098: Let me clarify the switching thing: the Carly we all know and love aka Canon Carly was pulled out of her world on the night after she got back from her Granddad's in iBalls and dropped into a world where her mother survived. At the same time, the Carly from that world switched with Canon Carly. AU Carly is with AU Freddie to make AU Creddie. The end of the first story tells you who did it. Now you know who's on first.

On with the story.

* * *

Chapter 11

Carly watched as Freddie sucked in a breath and sat up straighter on the stool. She could see from the look in his eyes that his mind was already contemplating any number of creative things he would have done to Griffin with all of them ending in a messy way despite the fact that it would have been before the accident and rehab. Brains over brawn.

The brunette interrupted his train of thought with a calm voice, "It puts it in a different perspective doesn't it? Looking at it that way… the way I'm seeing it?"

She may have been looking him in the eyes but he wasn't really looking back. He suddenly snapped his attention back to her and clenched his jaw. He whispered out coldly, "I don't know what I'd do."

She slightly frowned as she softly snapped in return, "Bullchizz, I know exactly what you would have done and it wouldn't have involved you sitting on your hands while I was being used as a punching bag because I know you and I didn't have to see what you did to Steven after you found out he was dating me and Tori at the same time. It took André and Beck to pull you off of him and Beck still walked away with a black eye for his troubles."

Freddie looked like he was caught off guard by her version of the payback for Steven, but quickly brushed it off by snapping in frustration with a harsh whisper, "Stop it! Stop tearing her down. Get off your blasted soapbox and stop knick picking every little wrong thing you see about her!"

Carly took a breath slightly surprised at his snap at her then started noticing some of the neighboring teenagers turned their attention to the pair as they may not have caught all the words, but they easily go the meaning that he was upset with her. The other patrons looked to one another and started gossiping towards one another in hushed tones at the sight of Freddie being short with Carly was unheard of occurrence.

Freddie on the other hand ignored them as he maintained his stare at the brunette.

Carly bowed her head and looked down at her drink. She whispered, "I'm not trying to tear her down… I'm just outraged at what I could have become and it…" She took a shook her head then looked to him with defeated eyes and whispered, "I can't imagine hurting you like that and makes me sick."

He leaned forward and hissed, "What do you want me to do? Hate her? Despise her? What?"

She met his challenging voice and began, "I want you to—"

T-Bo's voice called out with concern, "Is there a problem?"

The pair looked up the bandana wearing manager had slipped beside them and holding up a stick with tacos on it.

Carly cleared her throat and tried to force a calm expression on her face. She tried to calmly reply, "No, we're just…"

Freddie picked up, "We're just having a… lively conversation. We're catching up over the last week she's been gone."

T-Bo put on a slight frown and with a light sarcastic tone asked, "Told her yet how you screwed up everybody's eyeballs?"

The brunette slightly frowned and asked curiously, "What?"

The tech producer took a few visible calming breaths then answered with a somewhat forced calm voice, "Yeah, his three-D broadcast of last night's iCarly. It was three-D, but—"

Carly turned her attention back to Freddie and eagerly asked with a bright smile, "You got that working?"

Freddie looked to her in surprise at her sudden shift into excitement. He cleared his throat and answered, "Yeah, I ah… I've been fiddling with it for a while, but really took the time last week to get it working."

She laughed out softly not realizing that T-Bo was standing to their sides, "Freddie told me he's been trying for weeks to get it working at camp. How did you get it working?" She shook her head with an almost giddy laugh, "I don't know what problem he's really having with it or if I would understand your answer… maybe I should have taken more after Granddad Dorfman and dad… the engineers of the family."

T-Bo's brow furled as she asked, "Come again?"

Freddie laughed out nervously darting his eyes back and forth between the manager and his friend's counterpart.

Carly looked up at the manager and quickly answered, "My dad's in the Air Force." She slightly pulled on her T-Shirt to show the Air Force symbol over her heart. "He got an engineering degree out of college."

"The camp part. What camp?"

Freddie spoke up, "Ah… I was planning to go to camp this summer."

"How? You had school. Were you just going to blow it off?"

Freddie rolled his eyes and regretfully commented, "I applied before they let us know that they were extending the school year. I didn't get in—"

Carly put her frown back on and hissed out, "Yeah, all because of—"

Freddie raised a hand. "It's not important—right now," he quickly finished because she guessed he saw that she was about to vehemently disagree with him on the part about it not being important.

"Oh…" T-Bo looked back to Carly and finished, "Don't get too excited Carly, it doesn't work; it janks up everyone's vision."

Carly frowned at him for a moment at trying to burst Freddie's bubble. She retorted with a confident voice, "Don't you worry. He'll get it working." She turned her head and looked Freddie in the eyes trying to convey that she had confidence that he would be able to prefect the camera.

The tech producer just looked to her with surprised relief.

T-Bo pulled his head back slightly from the bit of sassy in Carly's voice, but Carly continued before he could comment, "How are you doing?"

"You know… getting by," he answered with a curt tone then looked to Freddie.

"Okay…" she answered slowly then grinned as she looked to his bright green bandana around his head. "Did you know my mother wore bandanas too?"

"What?" He looked completely surprised at the randomness of the question.

The brunette continued fondly, "She's… was an artist. It's just a part of her."

The manager glanced to Freddie for a moment then asked with a surprise hint of sensitivity, "Where is your mother? You've never mentioned her. It's just been you and Spencer."

Carly glance to Freddie for a moment then back to the manager. "She's in Heaven."

T-Bo's lips formed an O shape for a moment then replied with a hint of nervousness in his voice, "Oh, I'm… I'm sorry."

She nodded. "You would have liked her T-Bo. She buys… would buy anything you would offer her on a stick. She'd be your most loyal costumer."

The sentiment seemed to bring a smile then Carly stated, "I'll buy a taco."

His smile grew bigger while he slid the top taco off the top of the stick then handed it to the web-hostess.

Freddie slightly shook his head as he pulled out his wallet and handed the manager a few bills.

T-Bo smiled and quickly palmed the money and was on his way as Carly took her first bite at the end of the taco.

The brunette chewed her first morsel of the taco as the tech producer gave her a curious expression. She swallowed the bit of taco and answered, "Mom likes him. They trade bandanas from time to time."

He nodded along. He wanted to get back to her interrupted answer, but she spoke up first, "What's wrong with T-Bo?"

"What?"

She motioned with her head over his shoulder while taking another bite from her taco. She chewed enough of her food to ask, "He was kind of short with you or was he just still upset about his eyes?"

Freddie turned back to his smoothie and took a quick sip before answering, "Living with us is starting to fray on him."

She swallowed the rest in her mouth and washed it down with her smoothie then asked, "Live with us?"

"He's subleasing the spare bedroom."

She slightly furled her brow while asking, "Why is he living with you and your mom?"

He nodded his head up to the roof and dryly commented, "The health inspector kicked him out from the second floor."

She snorted out in disgust, "Didn't he fight it?"

"What?"

Carly sighed out and shook her head, "Yes fight it. I don't know what it's like here, but there is a lot of corruption in Seattle government, so we're use to standing up to it." She took a quick sip from her drink to wet her mouth before continuing, "The cops, the fire department, the school, health inspectors… they're all crooks. The inspector tried to kick him out and my mother gave the inspector a good tongue lashing about how ridiculous it was on the grounds of a health problem."

"Yeah… we've had our problems with them…"

She lifted her right hand and pointed to him started, "Isn't that the truth… the cops; remember the Petographers? They break into the apartment while mom's by herself while me, Spencer and Sam are out at the ice, we come back to find that she had to shoot one of them in the butt."

Freddie's mouth dropped open. "You're kidding."

"No… they threaten us then break in, what was mom suppose to do? She had no idea what they were planning. What if they decided that they wanted to trash more than just the studio?" She shook her head. "If dad was home he would have killed them… literally. Anyway, we call the cops, and good ol' Officer Carl shows up, but didn't want to touch them. Said it was nonsense that they broke in and started harassing us. He started hinting at wanting to arrest mom. Mom had to finally call the OSI to get anything done and have them arrested for breaking into the apartment. Office Carl is now a mall cop."

Freddie raised an eyebrow and asked, "OSI?"

"Think NCIS for the Air Force…" She shook her head as she recalled the incident. "It was kind of weird how they all looked like the actors from that show." She snapped her fingers as another memory popped in her head. "Then there is the fire department. They actually told us they wouldn't answer any more calls from us because of Spencer's latent pyrokinesis. During dad's last visit had to make it clear to them that if he's paying city taxes while he's overseas they better be responding to the calls or someone was going to pay."

"Pyrokinesis?"

She took another bite from her taco and took a few moments to eat it as he waited patiently. Once she swallowed enough, she answered, "Things set on fire around Spencer… even non-flammable stuff. He can't help it."

"Yeah… it happens to our Spencer too…"

Carly finished sipping her smoothie then looked back at him. "You just have stand up to bullies… like I saw you stand up to Sam back at the apartment… when was it where you didn't stand up to her that led you here? I know there had to be a point where her just annoying you like my Sam did turn into the mess you have now."

Freddie took a deep breath and glanced to the table.

Carly studied her boyfriend's counterpart and tried to read him just as she did with her Freddie, but he looked too jumbled to get an accurate read.

He finally spoke up after what felt like a near eternity to Carly, "If there was a point that I could say where it started getting physical was when we had our internet war with Fred."

"Lucas?" she hissed out in surprise. She palmed her forehead and closed her eyes as she dipped her head forward. "Oh my God, Lucas. How does that have anything to do with it?"

"You had to deal with him too?"

"Oh yes… that son of a—" She took a deep breath to cut herself off as to not say something un-lady like as her mother would put it. If she took a moment to think about it, but she had been saying plenty of un-lady like things about people over the last several hours.

Freddie raised a curious eyebrow as he cautiously asked, "You don't like him I take it?"

She smirked at him and answered dryly, "No there is no love lost between us. Oh did he try to jank us over… I remember when it all started with you saying that Fred wasn't funny."

"You had a problem with it too?"

Her brow furled as she asked, "With what?"

"Me… him not thinking Lucas was funny."

The brunette shrugged a shoulder and answered before taking another bite of her taco, "We agreed to disagree. It wasn't any big deal until things happened at school on Monday."

"How was it for him? Did Lucas threaten to stop making his videos?"

She shook her head and finished chewing that mouthful of taco. "Yes and it was bad for a few days. Everyone went after you even your aunt. You were kicked out of all your clubs… I lost count of how many people you had to bloody up when some thought they could just hit you to get back at you… you even had to give Shawn a bloody nose after telling you that you were being kicked out of the Mathletes and he tried to shove you to the ground." She let out a soft laugh, "I don't know how many detentions mom gave out, but of course they thought it was a joke from her…" Carly devilishly smiled as she finished, "They weren't laughing when they got suspended for not showing up to them."

Freddie's mouth dropped open in reaction to the differences. "People got suspended?"

"Of course. You just can't skip detentions and get away with it. Even Principal Franklin couldn't control the school if people knew the punishments didn't mean anything."

The tech producer blew out a breath as he looked on her with disbelief. "So how did it turn out?"

She chuckled, "Sweetly… we revealed it on the show that he didn't plan to stop his videos at all and just did that to get his viewership up. People didn't like being used like that… he really did stop making his videos a few weeks later and faded into obscurity."

"How… how did you prove that?"

She smirked like a cat that just ate the canary. "Easy… we told him that we would go along with his plan and we'd end it with you saying on the air that he was funny, but once he got on the show we surprised him with you telling him to his face that he wasn't funny then explained his plan and we weren't going to have anything to do with his stunt." She softly laughed, "The look on his face when you surprised him on the show… he was expecting an apology and walked away humiliated."

As Freddie looked on her dumbfounded, Carly asked curiously, "What happened to him here?"

Freddie licked his lips as if suddenly his smoothie had gone sour in his mouth, "I had to apologize to him on camera and not only shake his hand but give him a friendly hug to prove he was right and I was wrong. He eventually got a TV movie on Nickelodeon and he's supposed to get a second one for Halloween."

"That son of a…" She shook her head. "Sometimes the bad guys do get rewarded."

He shrugged his shoulder, "If it makes you feel better, I think more people watched it to see Jennette McCurdy in it than him."

She frowned then commented regretfully, "I'd hate to admit it, but… I'd tune in to watch just to see her."

Freddie nodded along in agreement. "I know, right?"

Carly finished the last of her taco then washed it down with another sip of her smoothie. Once finished, she turned her attention back to Freddie and asked, "Why were you forced to say he was funny?"

Freddie took a few breaths through his nose and she could see that he was getting a little annoyed if not getting outright angry. "We went to go see him to get him to make more videos and then he asked for an apology. I said no… then Sam broke a tennis racket over my head and nearly broke my arm to get me to say he was funny while Carly stood by and said nothing. That's why I really got on the air and said he was funny… Sam would have broke me and Carly would have done nothing, because—"

"The show is more important to her," the alternate Carly whispered out in a cold tone.

He looked up at her and stared her right in the eyes. She was familiar with that intensity from seeing it in her own Freddie: the internal fire that drove him when he thought he was right. He whispered out in a determined voice, "I will not hate her as you are determined to make me do."

The Carly from another world softly shook her head and whispered out, "I don't want you to hate her—"

"Then what?" he snapped again not caring that the others around them were trying their best to now eavesdrop on the pair. "What do you want me to do?"

Carly took a soft breath as she refused to be intimidated by the look in his eyes. She knew exactly what she wanted to say, but her answer was not for the prying eyes and ears were trying to desperately here the pair's conversation. She admitted with a whisper, "Okay… but not here." She motioned her head and eyes towards some of their classmates at a neighboring table.

Freddie drummed his fingers on the table then cautiously answered, "I have a place."

* * *

Author's Note: Thanks for reading. Hope to get the next one out by Monday. Later, OneHorseShay.


	12. Chapter 12

Author's Note: Hey everyone. I was hoping to get this out on Creddie Friday, but I needed some extra time to revise this chapter, so I got it out on Creddie weekend. Honestly this should have been out at least two weeks ago, but real life gets in the way of writing in unexpected ways. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Subject87: Thanks; she's in a very strange situation and the only anchor she has is Freddie and caring for him, so she is doing the only thing she can do at the moment.

MixItUp: :D Not every chapter can be a blockbuster, but you are right that some are necessary to get you to the blockbuster chapter. iMeet Fred had to be addressed in some way since it is universally agreed to be one of if not the worst episode of the entire series with the message it sent and how much it damaged the characters.

Boris Yeltsin: Well here's the next chapter. Sam and Cat together, what a concept.

Jeremy Shane: Thanks and here is the next chapter.

DCUO Statellizer: Thanks.

Skittymon: Sorry I kept you in suspense so long. It's like the universe has conspired against me several times to work on all my stories.

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Chapter 12

Freddie pushed open the door to the Groovy Smoothie and held the door open to allow the visitor from another world to pass him. She waited the brief moment for him to clear the door then he started leading the way down the sidewalk. She walked by his side and lopped her right arm with his as he had his hand stuffed in his jacket pocket. He gave her a curious glance as they continued walking, but she gave him a soft smile, a momentary break from the friction that started building between them since him chasing her during her abrupt exit from the apartment.

A hint of a smile formed on his face and with a slight nod of his head, he apparently accepted her gesture and continued walking without saying a word.

The brunette didn't care, and apparently he didn't either, of who saw them including any of the Ridgeway students that could be looking out of the window to see them walking arm in arm. She saw it as just a friendly gesture and if passer bys read more into it than that, it was their problem. If she was being honest with herself, she didn't care if it would bring any grief to her counterpart in explaining it to the others if it came up.

So Freddie led the way with Carly being content to walk with him.

Bushwell Plaza  
Seattle, WA

It was a short walk back to the Plaza and soon Freddie was opening the door for the pair to enter. They quietly walked past Lewbert sleeping and headed for the elevator as the doorman was resting back in his chair and a bit of drool falling from his lip rolled down the side of his chin.

Freddie casually poked the button to call for the elevator then remained quiet as they waited for the doors to open then each stayed quiet for the short ride in the elevator to the desired floor. She wondered briefly for a moment of where he could be taking her so they could talk in private. She doubted he meant to his room with the risk of them being interrupted by his mother since her nursing duties were only part time or so she assumed in this universe. She didn't expect this Mrs. Benson to respect Freddie's privacy when back home it had been such a hard fight even with her mother fighting the part time nurse to treat Freddie with the respect that he deserved.

When the elevator doors opened, he surprised her by gently taking her hand and started leading her down the hallway. They walked passed her and his apartment and it peaked her curiosity as to where he cold be taking her. She briefly thought that he could be taking her to the service/maintenance room for one of the elevators that her Freddie had thought about renting from Lewbert before her mother offered him to stay with them when he briefly moved out from his apartment. A smirk formed on her face as she remembered the times that she and her Freddie had slipped away to the room over the last few months to makeout in private without any interruptions, especially the night before he left for NERD camp.

A hint of blush formed on her cheeks as she realized if the sound of a passing elevator didn't interrupt them that night, they just might have gone quite farther than either really intended at that point in their relationship.

He apparently didn't notice the slight flush in her cheeks as he walked them passed the maintenance room, dashing away that possibility. They reached the end of the hall and took a quick turn to the right at the T-intersection of the perpendicular hallway and walked a little further down until Freddie stopped in front of one of the windows.

He opened the window then stepped over the banister and onto the fire escape. He quickly had a seat on one of the metal steps leading to the next floor up and gave her a small smile.

Carly rested a hand on the edge of the window pane as she smiled and she looked onto the fire escape and the slightly content tech-producer. She softly laughed out, "Aww, your sanctuary too?"

He looked back with a raised eyebrow as he looked caught off guard by the question. He took a moment to clear his throat before he could answer, "It's your Freddie's place too?"

She snorted out a soft laugh as she threw one leg over the bottom windowsill then the other so she could climb into the fire escape and rest her bottom on the window ledge. Once she was settled, she answered with a playful tone, "Yes… I think he hides out here when we have our spats."

He raised an eyebrow and asked with a hint of laughter in is voice, "You two actually fight?"

She let out a soft laugh with the relief actually reaching her eyes, "No couple's perfect… and we still got into disagreements when we were just friends… best friends." She slightly shook her head as she continued, "It wasn't going to magically change just because we started dating…" She shrugged her right shoulder as she hand braced against the banister and let her legs start swinging freely and admitted freely, "Okay, we obviously went through our honeymoon phase, but…" She rested her right cheek on her shoulder and somberly continued, "If anything, it can be more challenging. The one person you can count on to turn to help you work it out is the one you're having the disagreement with in the first place."

Freddie slightly pursed his lips and gave a sympathetic nod. He looked away from her and remained silent as he looked to his right and over to the Seattle skyline.

The brunette couldn't hazard a guess at what the tech-producer could be thinking as she watched him in silence. Was he imagining what he would do in such a situation? Since learning so much about her alternate and him, she figured that they may never had an argument that left them awkward around each other for maybe days or even longer until one of them would forgo their stubbornness and make the first move. Or was he thinking about how nice it would be to have a honeymoon phase with Carly? The look in his eyes told her over the last several hours that he really loved his Carly and maybe it hurt that she was a reminder of what he didn't and apparently couldn't have with his Carly.

Carly let out a soft breath and figured that she had given him enough time to contemplate whatever was on his mind. He had brought her up here to let her tell him what she though he should do in regards to his Carly. She started with a calm voice, but it quickly turned urgent as she spoke, "You love her, I get that, and I understand that… loving my Freddie has made me understand it. You don't want to hold what she does against her. You don't want to…" The brunette took a breath to calm herself and gather her thoughts. She looked back up to meet his eyes as she asked, "How do you look at Carly? In your own words, how do you look at Carly?"

Freddie brow knotted up as he looked to her and asked cautiously, "I don't understand."

"How do you look at Carly? I'm not talking about physically, but her as a person. How do you see her? What does he _really_ mean to you?"

Freddie glanced down for a moment the whispered out, "I see her as… she's my best friend. She's—"

"Except you're not to her?"

He frowned and sat up straighter.

She held up her hands. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't… I've learned from my dad that Shays can be very bitter about people that wrong us." She took another breath in the hopes she could put her thoughts into meaningful words. "It hurts to see you hurt…." She blew out a breath then continued, "You've looked at me several times just like my Freddie does and I know the difference between you two, but it's hard for my heart to separated the difference. You'd protect me from anything…" She nearly choked on her words as she finished, "…and I'd do the same for you."

Her explanation seemed to mollify him for the moment as he took a breath and glanced away. He let the breath out slowly then continued, "Carly… my Carly, I see her as… the girl I'm still in love with and she will always have a piece of me even when I'm a hundred sitting in a rocking chair next to another woman on… Mars. She might never see me the way you see your Freddie, but… I can't stop loving her. You see all the bad and you let it blind you to the good—"

"But you don't want to acknowledge the bad, that's my point. You've admitted you've seen it, but you still don't want to knock her off of the pedestal you've constructed for her all these years. You don't want to lose that image you've had of her since when? You were thirteen?"

"Eleven actually," he lamely answered with a roll of his eyes.

She nodded her head then continued with a somber voice, "I know you love her and contrary to what you may think… rightly think I'd admit with how I've gone on about her, I wouldn't tell you that you shouldn't, but making excuses for her doesn't help her or you."

She took a deep breath then whispered out solemnly, "At some point someone has to take responsibility for their actions. If you are going to love her, even if you're never with her for the rest of your life, you have to hold her accountable for what she does… love her for who she is… not who you imagine her to be. That's what I really want: for you to see her for who she is, not what you imagine her to be… and be happier for it. I know, I know that you know the desire for someone you care about to be happy."

Freddie got off the grated step then covered the distance to have a seat next to her on the window banister. Carly gave him a curious expression while he remained silent and deep in thought from recognizing the expression. He was silent for seconds that seemed to stretch out into minutes as he looked out to the cityscape.

He cleared his throat as it looked to Carly's eyes that he was contemplating his next words or looked apprehensive at what he was going to say. "You're probably right. I don't want to look at her any different. I just want to look at her as my Carly, but…"

"But?"

"But you're right, I have to deal with reality, not my fantasy… and there's something else that goes with that then."

"And that is?"

"She's not the only one that needs to take responsibility for how to treat people."

She slightly frowned and her brow furled with confusion.

The tech-producer blew out a breath through his nose and started with a somewhat shamed tone, "Honestly, I became a real jerk when I was with Sam. Sam continued being herself, but I really started giving it back to her. I'd match her move for move and became a real ass about it." He snorted out a laugh and shook his head. "I even accused you… my Carly of being jealous to cover the fact that it was mine and Sam's fault for missing an iCarly broadcast when you were right to get on to us. I couldn't even take responsibility for that and just turned it on her. I guess I was just following along with Sam."

"I'm sorry if I can't work up any sympathy for Carly. You owe her one apology; I think she owes you a thousand."

A soft smirk formed on his face as he playfully countered, "So this is what it's like to have someone be that protective of you?"

She broke out into a joyful laugh, "We Shays can be pretty fierce when it comes to the ones we love."

He ran his tongue on the inside of his bottom lip then laughed out, "After today, I'll never doubt that."

They shared with the relieved sense they felt, but it didn't last long as Freddie barely turned his head to glance at her from the corner of his eye. He whispered out with a hint of fear that the brunette picked up from his tone, "Why did you kiss me?"

She turned her head to look him with a guarded expression. She felt a sense of awkwardness form in her chest, but then a thought occurred to her to turn it around at being put on the spot. Her guarded expression slipped away to put on a playful grin. "You consider that just a kiss? I think I'm kind of insulted," she finished with a soft laugh.

Her expression triggered his own soft laugh that bleed away some of the tension and she responded with a bigger smile. He corrected, "Okay, interrupted makeout session… an amazing one for the record."

"Thank you, I tried," she answered with a smirk.

They remained silent for a moment as each wore a small smile until he asked again, "So, why?"

She took a soft breath and calmly answered, "Because… I wanted to comfort you and maybe myself."

He raised an eyebrow as he assessed that answer.

"You looked so hurt, so angry with her and yourself. I wanted to show you what real comfort was from someone that would love you, not kiss you between punches or punches between kisses or whatever you wanted to call what you had with Sam… and maybe I needed to feel safe being in your arms."

He glanced away for a moment and taking the moment to think on what it would be like if Carly ever decided that she wanted to find comfort in his arms. His mind immediately compared it to the time he danced with his Carly at the Groovy Smoothie as really he thought she had taken that comfort as the danced. He let his mind dwell in that memory for a few more moments until another thought occurred to him. "Why did you cry?"

She briefly looked away and let the soft smile fade from her face then looked back to him. "Hasn't it been obvious for you this entire time? I already told you: it hurts to see you hurt even if you're not really mine."

He took a deep breath then let it out slowly. "He's lucky to have you."

"I hope when your Carly gets back she realizes how lucky she is to have you," she answered softly then playfully pocked him in the side with her right index finger.

He gave her his boyish grin as he countered, "Now you're just flirting with me."

She leaned over close enough for their noses to almost touch. She breathed out her words in a hushed tone as she looked directly into his eyes, "That's not flirting." Her eyelids fluttered shut for a moment as she directed her eyes to look at his lips while licking her own lips then back up for nearly matching brown eyes. Her eyebrows gave a quick flick upward.

Freddie chuckled and looked away for a moment as she let out a laugh as well as she shifted back in her seat.

She rested her head on his shoulder and the pair let the silence fall between them. They looked across the clear sky. "I'm sorry that I gave you so much grief these last few hours. Maybe I'm just frightened by the fact that could have been me?" She blew out a breath and looked up to the sky. "To see the 'what if' and being terrified of it and taking a little of it out on her?"

He nodded along with his cheek rubbing against the crown of her head. "I know what it's like to be someone you don't like seeing… that you don't want to look in the mirror and see your reflection. You lashed out and I retreated and pretend it didn't happen."

"I guess you can only lie to yourself for so long."

"I guess you're right…" He grinned while finishing, "It only took a girl dropping in from another universe to make me see it."

She smiled brightly while she continued to rest her head on his shoulder. "Glad I could help instead of maybe just being a pain, but I'm not apologizing for caring about you."

"You don't have to and you weren't a pain…" He rolled his eyes and with an upbeat tone finished, "Okay, you could be a little irritating, but you made me realize some things about my life… about myself. Thank you for that. I owe you one. I know what I could do; I could get you some Galini's pie. How does that sound?" His voice filled with a bit of tremor as he continued with a hint of doubt at wanting to believe his own words, "We could pig out on some of his pie while we wait for you two to… you know, _switch back_. I think it's a fine way to spend a Saturday afternoon while we wait."

Instead of a response, there was simply silence from her. He waited for a few more moments for her to say something, but she didn't answer and called out, "Carly?"

His answer was only continued silence then realized that he didn't feel any weight on his shoulder.

The Seattleite turned his head and saw that he was alone on the fire escape. He asked more out of curiosity, "Carly?" He frantically started turning his head back and forth to see where she had gone and shouted, "Carly!"

He took several breaths and realized that she was gone and figuratively felt his stomach drop. One thought overwhelm his mind, _if this Carly was gone then…_

He threw his legs over the window ledge back inside the building then dashed off as fast as he could run back to the Shay apartment.

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. This was the chapter I was trying to wrap up lose ends in the canon world from AU Carly's perspective and really show that despite how badly she may have handled certain things, her heart was always in the right place: her love for Freddie. Also, you've got to admit that room that Lewbert was going to rent to Freddie would be somewhere for them to sneak away to.

I'm not sure if I have one or two more chapters after this one; I'm leaning more towards two and hopefully it won't take another month to get them done. It seems every time I try to make an estimate, something pops up and says, "Oh no you're not!" Fingers crossed and see you later.


	13. Chapter 13

Author's Note: Man, this chapter took far longer to write and get back to than I intended. So much so that I'm actually between Creddie Fridays. I wanted this out to celebrate the final Season Premiere of iCarly and Tina Fey's all too short appearance in the show. I still say and will always say that they should have had her play their mother. I hope you enjoy this lucky number 13 chapter.

Now to my dear reviewers:

PD31: Well you are about to get your wish.

Boris Yeltsin: Messing with alternate universes usually are strange :D

Subject87: Thanks for liking that particular part. One of the points of these two stories was that none of the characters are perfect and they _don't have to be_. You can't love people in pieces.

DCUO Statellizer: That's a very good suggestion. I should take Scotty's approach from Star Trek: give an estimate of four times how long it's going to take me then it makes me look like a miracle worker. Also, I want 'iWould Have Pounded Him Silly' next as well. Trying to get one thing done at a time so I can manage what little writing time I have.

Jeremy Shane: Well you got it :P

Chibininjah: I hope this chapter is satisfying and thank you for the review.

Okay, on with the story.

Special Guest Appearance by Tina Fey as Taylor Faye Shay

Rating: T for Adult Situations

* * *

Chapter 13

Carly let out a soft breath as she felt a difference in the feeling of her head resting on a shoulder and the soft touch of arms wrapped around her. Her brow knotted up as she was surprised that Freddie would wrap his arms around her. She took another breath, but instead of smelling the familiar scent of Freddie, she smelt another, more feminine scent. Along with the scent, she started hearing soft singing, "…down the stream, merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream…"

She slightly frowned in confusion from the odd sensory inputs along with realizing that she was standing on her feet then lifted her head to see the face of her mother. She blinked and took a brief moment to realize that she wasn't with Freddie anymore or even outside, but in the arms of her mother and inside the iCarly Studios. Her mouth slightly dropped open then muttered out in disbelief, "Mom?"

The bandana wearing woman looked to her in hesitation and took a few moments to study her then hesitantly ask, "Carly?"

She broke into a bright smile and shouted, "Mom!" She pulled her mother in tighter for a hug and the older Shay returned the hug.

Taylor closed her eyes and gave her a soft kiss on the forehead. She continued to rock with her child in her arms as she whispered out, "Oh sweetheart."

Carly pulled back and started laughing, "I'm back, I'm back."

Mother and child's eyes met and Taylor gave her a soft smile as she agreed, "You're back."

The younger brunette continued to laugh as tears started running down the valley between her nose and cheeks.

The older artist immediately put on a concerned expression and reached up to wipe away her daughter's tears with her thumb. "Are you alright?"

Carly let out a relieved breath and started nodding her head. "I'm fine… it's just… you wouldn't believe me."

Taylor let out a soft laugh as she dropped her hand away and countered with her childlike tone, "You went to another world where I died and you weren't with Freddie?"

The younger brunette sucked in a sharp breath then tightly shut her mouth as she focused on her eyes on her mother.

Taylor quickly explained with a hint of nervousness, "The other Carly's been here since you've been gone."

Carly blinked as she took the moment to process that piece of information then whispered out, "So she was right…"

The artist gave her a confused expression.

The web-hostess quickly answered her mother's mystified expression, "Magic Malika."

Taylor slightly frowned at hearing the name.

The younger brunette continued, "We went to see her. We didn't have any real idea what was going on and Freddie… the other Freddie didn't know how I could possibly be there if it wasn't aliens or magic, so…"

The mother gave a half-hearted smile as she nodded her head and replied, "I see your point… at least we had some idea of what it could be."

Carly eyes shot open and she was about to question her, but the door to the studio opened and the mother and daughter turned to see Freddie cautiously look at them from the doorway. He swallowed down nervously as he looked to the pale teenager. "Carly?"

The web-hostess broke into a grin and ran to the surprised tech producer and leapt into his arms. Fortunately he was quick enough to catch her and steady enough on his feet not to be knocked over by the excited teenager.

She pulled back then cupped his cheeks and kissed him hard.

His eyes shot open in surprise then closed his eyes enjoying the sensation of his eager girlfriend. If possible, the couple deepened the kiss and apparently tried to go for a record of how long they could hold their breaths to continue their kissing.

Taylor covered her mouth and looked away as she thought how often she had done that to Steven when he'd return from a deployment.

The young couple finally separated so they could catch their respective breaths and look at each other while Freddie sat her back on her feet. Carly pulled her hands from her cheeks and rested them on his shoulders as she looked at him as if trying to re-memorize his face after not seeing _his_ face in six weeks in person, but only on a computer screen. She whispered, "It's me, it's really me. I'm back."

His face nearly broke as he grinned to her and let out a soft laugh, "You're back… six weeks and another universe, but you're back."

Her face almost broke from smiling at seeing that he apparently understood what happened as she responded, "Yes I am and I _love you_."

Each one's respective smile slightly faded as they looked into each other's eyes, Carly due to the fear that he might not believe her after he had spent the day with the other Carly while Freddie could see the fear in her eyes.

He started grinning again and whispered, "Of course you do… I'm your Freddie."

Carly's smile returned in an instance then started peppering him with kisses starting on his right cheek and going from there to his lips, chin and on to his other cheek.

He laughed out softly from the affection until he pulled his hands away from the small of her back and reached up to gently grab her wrist to pull her hands from his cheeks. He playfully interrupted, "Okay, okay, you love me…" He dropped his tone speak with a hushed tone, "I love you too Carls."

Carly started blinking again as fresh tears started rolling down her cheeks. She pulled him back into another hug and whispered into his right ear, "I've missed you."

"I missed you too," he answered while giving her a reassuring pat on her back.

The brunette pulled slightly back as to start kissing him again, but Taylor cleared her throat and caused the teenagers to turn to look at her with a curious expression. She gave them a bashful expression as she commented with somewhat embarrassing tone, "Sorry, but… I think there are a few others that would like to see you?"

The couple looked to each other with their own respective embarrassed expressions then looked back to the Shay Matriarch as Carly spoke up with an excited tone, "Sam! Spencer!"

She pulled out of Freddie's arms then dashed passed him through the open door to run downstairs.

The tech-producer and the teacher quickly passed humorous glanced towards one another then followed behind the eager Seattleite.

Carly's eager footsteps on the wooden steps reverberated down to the first floor then came to an abrupt stop in the middle landing of the stairs and called out as she saw Spencer sitting on a stool at the counter and Sam waiting on the couch, "Spencer! Sam!"

Spencer fell out of his seat in shock from her shout, but since he was use to the various falls in his life, he was able to jump right back onto his feet while the dirty blonde was quick to jump over the back of the couch, but stopped when she met her friend's eyes. She cautiously asked, "Carly? Real Carls?"

The brunette trotted down the rest of the stairs to the blonde and wrapped her arms around her. She surprised the dirty blonde by having the strength to lift her off of her feet and shouting, "Sam! My Sam!"

The shorter teenager started laughing, "I guess you missed me kiddo."

She lowered Sam back on her feet then grabbed her co-host by the cheeks and demanded while looking her straight in the eyes, "Don't you ever change!"

Sam saw the near desperation in her sister's, in all but blood, eyes. She cracked a smile and laughed out as she reached up to gently grab Carly's hands, "Alright, alright. You're stuck with me the way I am."

Carly let out a relieved breath then wrapped her arms around the back of her neck to pull her into a tighter hug.

The co-web-hostess smiled and wrapped her arms around Carly and a reassuring pat on the back. "I missed you too."

Carly pulled away to turn her attention to her big brother and Spencer was eager to pull his baby sister into a hug. Spencer patted her on the back. "We were worried about you kiddo."

She rested her head on his chest and just took the moment to feel safe.

Freddie called out from behind her, "We were all worried… once we figured it out of course."

Carly pulled away from her brother to give Freddie a confused expression.

Sam gave a quick glance to Freddie then answered Carly's confused expression, "She fooled Freddie."

Freddie took a deep breath and slightly frowned then turned his attention to the floor.

Carly looked to Sam with a look of disbelief as if she questioned hearing her correctly then to her boyfriend to confirm if it was true.

Mrs. Shay was quick to point out, "We were all fooled for a wh—"

The teenager snapped in shock and outraged, "How did she fool you? _Any of you?_ She's—she's…" The brunette shook her head and trailed off as she looked to the floor. She whispered out with a tired breath as all the anger she felt for the other Carly ebbed away at the memory of the other Freddie still loving her and wanting to forgive her in spite of her actions… which she really was happy with if her counterpart was sincere on her part. "She's not me…"

The group looked to one another with embarrassed expressions, particularly Freddie, but Taylor appeared not to find anything embarrassing. She took a slow breath and patiently responded, "No she's not… she may be what you could've become without me, but she still has the same heart and that's why we were fooled for so long. Megan can't fool us because she's… different."

Carly looked to her mother with a slightly irritated expression which seeped into her voice, "But Megan isn't as a heartless girl regardless of how much Drake and Josh can scream about it and you don't mistake her for me, but the other Carly with _all her problems_ can? She didn't turn out all that right the way she treats her Freddie. You don't know what she did to her Freddie or let happen to him."

Sam laughed and patted her friend on the shoulder, "No bias at all for Megan."

The brunette slightly frowned back at her sister from another set of parents which told Sam that this wasn't the time for jokes. Sam dropped her hand from her shoulder, closed her mouth and looked away with a slightly embarrassed expression.

Freddie snapped his head up and answered, "I do."

Carly looked back to Freddie with a slight furl of her brow.

"I know what she let happen… she admitted some things when we were…" Freddie stopped and cleared his throat while trying to avoid her eyes.

Carly blinked as she put the pieces together of what might have happened between the other Carly and him as it looked like she had fooled him long enough to… She felt a sudden sinking feeling in her stomach.

However, Freddie ignored the surprised expression she was giving him and pushed on, "…as if it was a nightmare then…"

Taylor picked up in the hope of maybe rescuing Freddie, "She told me the rest… your father called letting us know he was coming home for some leave, but when she heard the news, she couldn't maintain the act… I guess it was all too real for her. She ran up to your room and locked herself in. She thought we would think she was crazy and send to a hospital."

The brunette glanced away and mumbled out, "Their Spencer thought I could have hit my head or something when I was at Granddad's. Their Carly had just come back too. He wanted to take me to see a doctor."

Sam thumbed to Spencer and commented, "He did too."

"Hey, it was a reasonable assumption," the artist responded with a defensive tone.

The dirty blonde shook her head and let out a soft laugh.

Carly gave her brother a sympathetic expression then turned to look at Freddie with reassuring smile when she saw a fearful expression one his face as she couldn't know that he was recalling the warning he gave to the other Carly if they tried such a thing. "I guessed right that their dad wouldn't appreciate him trying such a thing, but the other Spencer kept suggesting it until we saw their Malika."

Sam gave her a strange expression and questioned with a hint of disbelief, "Why would you see Malika?"

"I woke up in the Twilight Zone and Freddie… the other one, was at a lost of what could have done it was aliens or magic and we didn't know any aliens, so… we went to see her…"

The co-host motioned with her fingers idly in Carly's direction, "And since Malika can do real magic, you went to see her?"

Taylor still frowned at the idea and snorted out with a disapproving breath. The rest looked to her with confused expressions on their respective faces. The artist took a moment to look at each of their questioning faces then commented, "What? I'm still uncomfortable with her dabbling in things she shouldn't dabble in. She is just asking for trouble."

Sam snorted out and playfully nudged Spencer in the ribs, "Yeah, we already have one fire bug."

"Hey!" the younger artist shouted with a bit of offense in his voice.

Carly softly laughed at Spencer's natural ability to accidentally set things on fire (even nonflammable items). She looked to Sam and continued with a serious tone from coming down from the momentary relief of the joke, "Or have her eyes burned out of her sockets."

They all looked to her with disbelieving expressions.

Carly shrugged her shoulders then continued, "She told me a story she heard when she was telling the other Spencer that I wasn't their Carly about a… seer?" she paused in her answer then continued, "That poked around where she wasn't suppose to be looking and saw what an angel really looked like. Malika hear that the woman had her eyes burnt out."

Freddie and Sam looked to each other with shocked expressions while Spencer looked to his mother. Taylor didn't look like the news phase her at all.

Taylor commented with a slightly lecturing tone from being a teacher, "Illustrates my point…" She focused back on Carly and asked, "So what did she say about you being there? Did she say it was magic?"

The brunette shook her head. "She didn't think it was magic." She softly rolled her eyes as she commented with a slight mocking tone, "There's something more to jumping universes than hopping around the world. She guessed it was a stretch that some god could do it, but thought it was probably an angel."

Taylor continued, "That's what the other Carly guessed since something like this has happened to her before—"

"What?"

The older Shay gave a patient smile then answered, "That's another story; anyway, she figured that it was an angel that visited her one Christmas and it was he that put her here that she needed to learn some kind of lesson."

Carly snorted out a breath through her nose and crossed her arms under her chest. "I thought the same thing if it was an angel. She certainly needs it that—"

The older artist raised a hand and admonished with a soft tone, "I know how upset you could be." She glanced to Freddie as she continued, "You weren't the only one upset, but there's no need to start speaking about her in that way. She's made her mistakes and hopefully we've helped her learn from them."

Carly turned her attention to Freddie, but he wouldn't meet her eyes now. She whispered out softly, "I'm sorry. I tried making some peace with it with the other Freddie, but I'm still annoyed, okay? It hurt to see their Freddie like that."

The others seemed to sense the sudden heaviness that had fallen between the couple, well at least on Freddie's end.

Taylor suggested with a hesitant smile, "Why don't you two go back to your room. You two have a lot of things to discuss."

Freddie looked to Taylor with a concerned expression, but Carly responded without hesitation and grabbed Freddie by his right wrist and pulled him along on her way back up the stairs. The brunette called out as the pair disappeared up the stairs, "We're going to be busy for awhile so don't disturb us!"

Carly Shay's Bedroom  
AU Seattle, WA  
11:53 PM, Saturday, August 20, 2011

Carly desperately tried to catch her breath as she rested her forehead against Freddie's forehead as she straddle his lap with his back against the purple headboard of her bed. He rested her hand on her bare thighs with his fingertips slid just under the hem of her very short sleep shorts.

The couple was in their sleepwear with Freddie wearing a blue T-shirt and pajama pants while her other article of clothing was one of her pink spaghetti strap tops she sometime wore to sleep which allowed to be seen her usually pale upper chest and neck to have a nice flush to it along with her cheeks after their extensive makeout session.

The thought did occur to her that if she hadn't missed her birth control pill this morning, they may have gone further than just a heavy makeout session especially as she could feel 'him' pressing against 'her' as she straddled him, but rational thought won out over hormones.

Her breath was still somewhat labored, but she was finally able to soft giggle, "I didn't realize how much I've missed that."

He smiled back up at her and gave her a kiss then slightly nibbled on her bottom lip for a moment before answering, "I know what you mean… especially with the real you…"

The couple looked into each others eyes and each of their smiles slightly faded. They had actually avoided talking about their respective experiences with their counterparts over the last ten hours and talked about anything else that came to mind including anything they missed during his trip that they didn't cover with their video chats and just enjoying being in each other's presence after the weeks long absence.

Freddie hung his head down as he whispered, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I let her fool me. Like your mom said, I guess I was seeing you in her, but that's no excuse for…"

She reached up and cupped his left cheek to force him to look at her. He whispered out, "I ah… I kissed her… several times and… cuddled with her."

Carly took a deep breath then admitted with a timid voice, "I saw you in the other Freddie…" She looked bashfully down and whispered, "I had a full blown make out session with him."

Freddie's mouth dropped open and looked out.

She cleared her throat and shrugged a shoulder. Her cheeks remained flushed out of embarrassment instead of passion as she attempted to explain, "I wanted him to… to see that there wasn't supposed to be the pain Sam caused him, I just… I wanted to take him away from all that… and maybe I needed to know that she wasn't me and I needed feel _you_."

Freddie shut his mouth and leaned his head slightly forward so he could meet her eyes as he asked with a curious and worried expression, "So… did we cheat on each other _with_ each other?"

She shook her head with confusion and fear. "I don't know… it's…"

He slightly frowned then reached up and cupped her cheek then gave her a chaste kiss on the lips. He pulled away and met her eyes again meet her confused expression with a soft smile, "To Hell with quantum mechanics and to whoever did this. We've waited too long and been through too much for something even like this to mess us up. I love you Carly Shay and you love me and that's all it is to it."

Carly smiled back to him with a stray tear running down her cheek then she rested her head on his right shoulder and rested her hands on his chest while his hands wrapped around the small of her back.

She just rested as Freddie stroked his fingers through hair he hadn't been able to run through for six weeks. He spoke softly with a sympathetic tone, "She came from a very depressing world…"

Carly snorted out with tribulation, "You don't know the half of it."

The tech-producer couldn't help but smile as he responded with a more upbeat tone, "Actually I do, but… I can't feel what you must have felt like to be there, but she filled me in on enough of it to get an idea what it might be like."

The brunette snuggled her head into the crook of Freddie's neck and he took it as a sign to pull her tighter against him to comfort her. "It was surreal for a little bit… I looked down on my mother's grave… I don't think that will ever leave me."

Taylor's voice broke the couple's silence from near the door to the room, "I'm sorry you had to see that."

Carly lifted her head off Freddie's shoulder and the pair looked to who they thought was Mrs. Shay, but was surprised to see a younger version of Carly's mother in a Heavenly white dressed trimmed with silver and a white bandana around her head. She wore a look of sadness on her face as she studied the couple.

Carly cautiously scooted off Freddie and the bed and stood up followed by her boyfriend to look down on the woman. The brunette gave her a perplex expression and asked cautiously, "Who are you?"

Taylor bashfully looked away for a moment then answered with an apprehensive voice, "I'm the other Carly's mother… I'm on a little trip from Heaven."

Freddie was not as timid as he asked with an almost accusatory voice, "Why are you here?"

Taylor looked to meet her daughter's counterpart's eyes and answered with a hint of fear in her voice, "I thought Carly… and you deserved a little bit of an explanation to what happened… if it wasn't clear enough?"

The brunette teenager frowned as she walked down the few steps to the level floor then stopped right in front of the deceased woman. She tried to speak with an even tone, but a little bit of anger slipped into her voice, "You're the one that did all this?"

The former artist looked to her with a childlike wonder that reminded the teenager of the expressions that Cat would give if something confused her which would always trigger a sympathetic reaction out of the brunette. "In a way, your mother was right about my Carly needing to learn a few lessons about life… I needed to save my daughter and you… to have the other Freddie face reality of his situation… and perhaps save him."

Carly snorted out with disbelief and looked to the Heaven sent woman as if she was mad. She snapped back with a tone that showed her outrage, "Save him? Save him would have been bringing him back with me from that Hell so he could have a happy life with people that would actually love him and not just hope that everything works out for him!"

Freddie raised an eyebrow and slightly frowned with confusion at the comment as he stared at his girlfriend.

Carly looked down as if she was embarrassed with her reaction and wrapped her arms around herself.

She looked over her left shoulder at him for a moment then grabbed him by balling some of his shirt with her clenched left hand over her shoulder and pulled him hard so that their lips crashed together for a few seconds. She deepened the kiss for a few moments more then pulled back then whispered as she looked him directly in the eyes, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry… I'm just sensitive about the whole thing, okay?"

He nodded dumbfounded and remained silent.

Carly looked back to the other Mrs. Shay, but was surprised that she saw a strange, confident look on her face replace the timid one of just moments ago.

Taylor whispered and nodded her head to Freddie, "You are still angry about what you've seen and experienced and because of that, you are making the same mistake as Freddie did at first about my daughter… and ignoring what the other Freddie told you about her."

The brunette took a calming breath and coolly retorted, "As much as I may sympathize with her for not having you, I am angry at her for the way she treated the other Freddie and allowed Sam to more or less torment him like a plaything for years. Freddie is the one that deserves the help and sympathy before your daughter should get any."

Taylor bowed her head slightly then whispered, "You may be right about that… but she's my daughter and I would do anything to save her from becoming the person you think she already is just like you would if it was your daughter we were talking about."

Carly blinked from the woman's counterpoint. She didn't have a moment to form any kind of response before Taylor continued with a motion of her hand towards the couple, "Those are not the only reasons that you are angry at her and you were angry how he allowed others to treat him that way, but once you cut through it, you're angry because you are both ashamed."

Carly's mouth dropped opened and looked to the younger image of her mother with outrage. "Ashamed? I have nothing to be ashamed about. I didn't treat my Freddie like your daughter treated hers for—"

Taylor interrupted with a surprisingly stern voice, "You're ashamed because you know how easily you could have been the other Carly…" She looked to Freddie and finished, "…or you the other Freddie."

Carly took a sharp intake of breath while Freddie closed his mouth tightly shut.

"Deep down you know that is the truth, but I'm not trying to belittle your righteous indignation about the situation with bringing that up or to convince you to feel a certain way about my daughter or Freddie because that is up to you… but I would like to thank you for helping me put my daughter back on the right track."

Carly took several breaths as she looked at the other Taylor Shay and contemplated what she had said. She was pulled out of her thoughts with a gentle kiss from Freddie on her left cheek then by his words whispered into her ear, "She's right." Carly turned her head with a furled brow to meet his eyes. He returned with a small, but confident smile as he whispered, "You would do anything to save ou—your child… I would have moved Heaven and Earth to try to save you if I thought you were going down a path like that."

The brunette gave her boyfriend a surprised expression, but quickly realized that he was correct: she would have done anything to save her child and apparently Taylor didn't even let death get in her way. Carly couldn't help but admire that trait even if she felt annoyed with having to experience the Hellish world in her opinion.

The web-hostess let out a soft breath through her nose as she looked at the younger image of her mother. "I'm… I'm sorry you weren't there for your daughter. As much as I may still be angry at her, I hope she makes it… and that Freddie has a happy life."

Taylor gave a nod of her head as she whispered out with a hollowed tone, "Thank you." She looked back up at the couple then whispered, "I need to make my way back… so… the only thing I have left to say is that I hope you two have a long and healthy life together."

Carly wasn't exactly sure how she was going to leave, but before she could, she shouted, "Ah, mo—Mrs. Shay?"

"Yes?"

She glanced to the floor for a moment then started again, "I aw… there's one more thing."

"Yes?"

"I… I told dad… your husband that I think he should move on… that he should be happy… that mom—you wouldn't want him to be alone."

The deceased Taylor gave a nod of her head and gave her a soft smile. "I told him the same thing just before I died… I hope maybe he'll listen to you. He's just… he's still in love with me after ten years, but thank you for that Carly."

The brunette sucked in a breath and gave a slight nod of her head. She cleared her throat and asked, "Well, I guess this is goodbye?"

Taylor smiled and simply answered, "Yes."

Carly cleared her throat and whispered out with a regretful tone, "I'm sorry you died."

Taylor took an unnecessary breath then whispered, "So am I… take care of yourselves and each other."

The couple looked to one another knowing that was exactly what they would do until their dying day. They looked back to the lovely former artist and Carly replied, "We will."

"One last thing on my part."

Carly raised a curious eyebrow.

"To finish the story Malika told you about… the seer."

The brunette felt a sinking feeling in her stomach as she asked, "Yes?"

Taylor wore a slight frown as she answered, "Castiel gave Pamela fair warning not to spy on his true form and she didn't listen… and apparently never told anyone that he gave her eyes back to her."

Carly nodded with a nervous expression on her face and whispered, "I'll remember that… so?"

Taylor smiled brightly then walked over to Carly to wrap her in a quick hug. She whispered in the girl's ear, "So, I love you too… goodbye my little Carlotta."

She took a step back then there was a soft flutter and between tic and tock, she was gone.

The couple blinked several times as their brains were trying to process the sudden disappearance of the woman.

Freddie's mouth slightly dropped open and tried to speak, but his vocal cords refused to function for a few moments, "That was… I _really_ don't like when that happens."

Carly closed her eyes and reached up and rubbed her right temple. "Yeah… that's not exactly pleasant to the eyes."

Freddie took her hand and led her back to the bed. "I don't know about you, but I could use some sleep after today."

Carly gently smiled as she reached the level with the bed and Freddie scooted on it far enough for her to join beside him. He relaxed on the purple sheeted cover bed and she slid next to him silently agreeing with his assessment and suggestion. She rested her head on his chest and closed her eyes as the day finally physically wore her down. She just wanted to lay here and sleep with the young man that had her heart and she didn't want to wake up anytime soon, but Freddie whispered out, "You know what?"

"What?" she mumbled as sleep quickly threatened to overtake her.

Freddie spoke with a surprisingly cheerful voice, "As screwy as today was, I think it's kind of nice that we may have set a couple up."

Carly grinned as she kept her eyes close. "What? You want to start playing matchmaker?"

The tech-producer laughed out, "Why not? Don't you want our and Spencer's children to be around the same age one day?"

Carly started giggling for a few moments then settled to allow sleep to overtake her.

* * *

Author's Note: I hope everyone has enjoyed this story. These two were fun to write even at the last I couldn't update as quickly as I wanted. I like to thank everyone that took the time to read and review. Hopefully we'll get more Creddie before the show is finished if not endgame.

Oh, but this technically isn't the last chapter as I intend to have short Epilogue to this story inspired from a comment PD31 made.

See you all later, OneHorseShay


	14. Epilogue

Hello everyone: I happy Creddie Friday! I'm just getting this under the wire since it is still Friday in the US when I'm posting this. I'm late with this because well, I have people that I care about affected by Sandy and I got to finally talk to them tonight, so I had my priorities. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this epilogue to this story and technically to the last one as well.

Creddie Rocks!

Jeremy Shane: I hope you enjoy.

Guest: I may not agree with all your analyses about the characters (especially Sam since I believe that the arc unfortunately showed that Sam isn't that deep and Dan never intended her so), but they are quite thought provoking and would make great fodder for other stories. Unfortunately with my writing schedule, I wouldn't get to any of them anytime soon.

PD31: Just trying to be a gentleman and not assume anything even if they are both assuming it anyway :P You are right about where they should have switched, but I decided that the symmetry of them both ending up in their mother's embrace to have the far greater dramatic effect, so I went with that option.

DCUO Statellizer: I'm glad you approve and yes I do watch the show. If you want to see some other hints of the show (including a particular redhead angel), you can look to two of my other stories: 'Jade Likes Nice Guys' and 'We Love Each Other'.

On with the story (another quick note, remember that this story is from the AU Carly's perspective and treated as the main character):

* * *

Epilogue

Carly sucked in a sharp breath and started blinking as she abruptly woke up. She continued to blink for several seconds in confusion from suddenly being aroused as it was still dark in the room with only the faint light of the moon entering the room. She took a deep breath without any problems, so she didn't think she was having any problem with her sleep apnea nor did she feel the need to get something to drink or need to use the bathroom, so that puzzled her further why she woke up. She looked to Freddie resting peacefully beside her with her right arm draped over his chest and saw that he wasn't stirring in his sleep that may have jolted her awake.

She snorted out her bit of annoyance from waking up from such a peaceful sleep in Freddie's arms then decided she might as well get up and use the bathroom and get a drink of water for her troubles. She rolled over to the right side of her bed and slipped out of his grasp without waking up then quickly planted her feet on the carpeted platform.

The filtered moonlight lit her room enough so she could softly patter down the steps and move to her bedroom door while stifling a quick yawn.

She opened the door to her bedroom and stepped through without much thought as she rubbed her right eye with her right fist to get some of the sleep out of her eyes. She dropped her balled fist as she yawned again then took a notice of her surroundings.

She blinked and looked around to see that she was back in her room. She slightly frowned and knotted her brow at how odd it was for her to somehow turn around and walked back into her room. She shook her head and turned around and to look out of her bedroom door, but froze in shock at instead of seeing the hallway and door to her parents' room, she saw that she was looking into her room yet she was standing in her room. She looked back and forth several times in an almost comedic manner to see what in essence were two identical bedrooms somehow hooked together at the doors as if they were rooms to a sick funhouse.

Carly turned to look back to the room she was currently standing and noticed on the bed was something equally shocking: seeing her backside (except wearing an old T-shirt and pajama pants in comparison to the spaghetti strapped pink tank top and short sleeping shorts she was wearing) rest next to Freddie. She took a sharp breath at the sight and hesitated for a moment on what to do. She looked over her shoulder again to look at the room she just exited. She realized that it would be pointless to head in that direction, so she started up the steps to the other bed.

She slightly nudged the sleeping girl who responded with an annoying groan at being disturbed. "What?" the teenager groaned out while still having her back towards Carly.

"Wake up," she softly nudged her counterpart.

The other brunette rolled on to her back and started blinking, obviously annoyed at being awakened. Once she completely opened her eyes and saw the other teenager, she sat up in bed and her eyes nearly popped out of her eyes. She spoke out with a hushed tone, "Oh my God."

Carly gave the girl a sympathetic look with a slight smile and responded with a surprisingly casual tone, "I'm having the same reaction."

The brunette looked Carly up and down, but remained silent for a few moments as apparently seeing a twin standing in front of her was a new experience.

In all honesty, when Carly met Megan for the first time, both girls had a similar reaction, so she was a little patient for the other girl to snap out of it.

Her doppelganger finally found her voice even if she slightly stuttered out her question, "Wh—who are you?"

Carly gave her a patient smile and answered, "I'm Carly and I'm guessing you're Carly too?"

The other girl nodded her head as she continued to look at her twin. "Am I dreaming?"

The first brunette gave a slight smirk as she gave her a little harmless sass, "I thought I was the one dreaming since I'm the one waking you up."

The other brunette nodded with the explanation then retorted, "Well after what I've went through today, I'm guessing this might not be a dream."

Carly soft smirk shifted into a soft smile as she retorted, "I don't know, maybe, maybe not after today."

The other girl's mouth slightly dropped open and her eyes opened wider. "You're the other Carly."

"Other?" She softly laughed out, "_You're_ the other Carly."

The other brunette snorted out a breath and shook her head then looked to her counterpart with a soft smile. "It's a matter of perspective I guess?"

Carly returned with a soft snort and surprisingly calm voice, "Yes it is… so I went to your world… I met your family... some of them anyway."

The other web-hostess gave her a bashful expression, "Yes you did and I met your mother."

The pair looked at each other with an awkward silence forming between them as neither really knew what to say to the other.

The other Carly asked, "How are you here? Did you just get dropped back here? I mean, since you said you woke up first."

"Not exactly…" She pointed over the door to the bedroom which the other Carly frowned in confusion at the motion.

She stood up from the edge of the bed then walked past her down the steps then stopped at the door. Her mouth dropped open at seeing that on the other side of the threshold was her room. She looked over her shoulder back to Carly and tried to form words, but only comically opened and closed her mouth.

Carly tried to hold back a laugh as she responded, "I had the same reaction too."

The other brunette finally found her voice and asked, "So what's going on?"

The web-hostess shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know; I just woke up for some reason then decided to use the bathroom, but I walked in here instead of the hallway."

The other brunette nodded her head and glanced to the floor for a moment then thought on the strange situation for a moment. She quickly looked up and suggested, "Maybe my mom did this?"

"I thought she was done."

The equally pale girl knotted her brow and asked with a slightly higher than normal pitched voice, "Done?"

Carly tilted her head slightly to her right and explained, "She visited me and Freddie tonight. She wanted to give me an explanation to everything then she said she was going back to Heaven. Well, that's what she told us, but I guess you'd be right that she's responsible for us seeing one another, but why?"

The other teenager softly bit her bottom lip and tried to guess on what her mother's motivations were for this one last twisting of reality. She looked back to Carly and quickly suggested, "Maybe she wanted us to have the chance to talk… maybe clear the air between us. I got… the impression that you were kind of mad with me."

Carly rolled her eyes and snorted out sarcastically that a part of her thought would make Jade proud, "You think after what I saw?"

The fellow brunette playfully poked in turn, "The 'Heartless bitch' kind of gave me that impression."

Carly frowned at the question, but answered with a somewhat embarrassed tone, "I thought it was an accurate description at the time with what I found out about your behavior with your Freddie."

The other web-hostess looked down to the floor somewhat embarrassed. "I might have deserved that."

Carly slightly shook her head and whispered out a retort, "Maybe not… I've probably been a little too harsh on you. Your Spencer's right: it is easy for me to judge you when I didn't have your life. I had my mom, but… I'm sorry you don't have your mom. I don't how I would have handled not having mom. Seeing her grave was… I don't think that's ever going to leave me."

The other girl gave her a sympathetic expression. "Let's hope the next time want be for a very long time."

Carly snapped her head up to meet her AU twin's eyes and continued to see the look of sympathy. She realized that her doppelganger was just pointing out the obvious: everyone dies and parents should never outlive their children.

Carly shook her head as she looked at her life of what could have been. She walked over to the small couch behind the water coffee table and took a seat. She leaned back and rested her hands in her lap then took a deep breath. She remained silent for a few moments then confessed, "If we're going to clear the air then let's clear the air: I love my Freddie. It took me a long time to look at him as more than my best friend, but I always loved him. When the taco truck accident happened and I saw him all broken… I knew I could never standby and see him ever hurt again." She looked to her twin and continued, "So when I found out about all the stuff that happened to him even if he wasn't really my Freddie… it wazzed me off."

The fellow teenager had a seat next to her then answered with a softly sentimental tone, "I understand; you love him and he loves you." She then looked away with a bit of shame on her face.

Carly's brow knotted with confusion and concern then quickly asked, "What?"

The other web-hostess looked to Carly with a flush of embarrassment on her cheeks then answered, "I ah… well Freddie, your Freddie kissed me."

Carly's mouth quickly formed an 'O' shape and her eyes slightly widened. She responded with a far calmer voice than the other girl expected, "I know, he told me he kissed you—with you failing to tell him you weren't me, but I'm calling it even since I kissed your Freddie."

The other Carly's face fell in shock as she asked with a raised and outraged voice, "You two kissed?"

The sheer jealousy she could hear from her counterpart made Carly smirk and feel the need to playfully toy with the girl in her answer, "Yes I did kiss him and he kissed back… he seems a natural at it."

The girl she had switched lives with for a few hours continued to look at her in shock, but Carly decided that the few brief moments of fun were enough and quickly finished, "You kissed my _boyfriend_; I kissed your _friend_, so let's call it even for them too, okay? No point in getting jealous over literally ourselves, right?"

The other brunette paused as if taking the moment to think about her words then quickly nodded her agreement then gave her an embarrassing smile.

Carly wondered on the other girl's bit of apparent jealousy (which she had no doubt that was the source of the surprised action at hearing the news of kissing her Freddie), but didn't have to wait long as she answered, "You're right; it would help to start off that way since… well ah… me and Freddie are going to try."

Carly raised her brow as she started, "As in…"

A small smile formed on her face, "Being together."

Carly raised an eyebrow as she cautiously asked, "Really? Isn't that kind of rushing things? Especially after today?"

"No, not for me and Freddie to be a couple… your Freddie opened my eyes on what it's like to really be loved for who I am. I had my eyes opened about a lot of stuff today that I didn't want to see, but I don't think we're rushing into anything. We're going to take our time at the same time adjusting how our friendship works, but I think we've waited long enough for me to realize that what I wanted was him all along."

"Okay, I just hope everything works out for you."

"I hope so too and for you too."

The pair looked to one another as an awkward silence fell between them. Neither was sure what to do next, until the obvious occurred to Carly. If this was meant to clear the air between them, she decided the best way to let the other girl there were no hard feelings since she doubted she'd ever have the chance again: she leaned over and hugged her twin.

The other girl was surprised at first, but a few moments later she wrapped her arms around her twin and hugged her in return.

Carly whispered in the girl's ear, "So are we good?"

"We're good," she responded with a pat on Carly's back then pulled away.

The girls scooted apart to retake their comfortable distance then sat in silence for a few moments.

The Canon Carly was the first to break the silence with a curious whisper, "What do we do now?"

Carly shrugged her shoulder and responded, "You're the one that has an angel and a mother that's willing to play with universes for you; I would think you would have a better handle on this than me."

The fellow pale teenager took a breath and another smile formed on her face. She gave a soft laugh as she asked, "You know what? I'm just going back to bed and hoping the next time I wake up, everything will be back to normal."

Carly let out a soft laugh then through a cheerful tone spoke, "After today, that sounds like one of the best I ideas I've heard."

The pair instinctively stood up from the couch and canon Carly stood aside for the brunette to walk past her to head back to her room. Just before she reached the threshold, she stopped and looked over her shoulder, "Do you think we'll ever see each other again?"

The brunette returned with a smile and answered, "I don't know, but maybe during Christmas I can make a wish to Mitch for you to stop by?"

Carly let out a soft giggle, "Okay, but if you can, have him give me a little warning before just snatching me up, okay?"

"I'll try to remember." She paused for a moment the with a somewhat regretful smile bid farewell, "Goodnight Carly."

Carly smiled with a somewhat forced smile as well as she replied, "Goodnight Carls." Carly turned and headed back to her room. As she crossed the threshold back into her room, she pulled the door shut behind her.

The brunette quickly crossed part of her room and up the steps as to slip back into bed and snuggle back into Freddie's embrace. She gave him a quick peck on the cheek then looked at his peacefully sleeping form and whispered, "I love you." She then rested her head back on his shoulder and let herself drift back off to sleep.

* * *

Author's Note: I hope everyone enjoyed these two stories. They have been labors of love and I'm glad I wrote them. I'd like to thank everyone that read and reviewed.

I liked to personally thank: DCUO Statellizer, PD31, Guest, Jeremy Shane, Chibininjah, Subject87, Boris Yeltsin, Skittymon, MixItUp, CCougar427098, BushwellFanNYC, I'mWritingBecauseOfCarlyShay, daytrigg, hurtsintheworstway, A Writer's Right to Write, Fanfic-Reader-88, Lucille Brown, lightbeyondpraise, RemDiamond, cameddie and SirRay. Thank you all for reviewing.

Everyone stay safe and tune in for the final episode of iCarly in late November.


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